


Book One: The Lyre Boy

by AceApollo



Series: Chaos Rising [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Adventure, Gen, Original Character(s), Warning for trans body dysphoria mentions, spin off series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 12:22:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 35
Words: 57,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6704425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceApollo/pseuds/AceApollo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex never suspected he was a halfblood— he just always thought he was weird. But when a power outage at school, a borrowed cell phone, and a strange golden-haired woman make his mom send him to a summer camp (in the middle of November), he'll realize he never knew just how weird things could get. On a train to New York City, Alex meets a boy named Orion who doesn't like to talk about himself. They become friends, but a couple weeks into camp, Orion disappears and the Hunters of Artemis show up and accuse him of terrible, mysterious crimes. It's up to Alex, Thalia, and Allafare (a sharp-tongued, wheelchair-bound daughter of Hermes) to hunt Orion down and prove his innocence... or maybe not. But Alex grew up sheltered in a Chicago apartment with his single mother and his cat. With secrets about his godly parent and friends like Orion and Allafare, Greek mythology won't be the only thing Alex struggles to understand. Four kids and their dog quest to save a missing god, battle monsters, and forge friendships in this first book of Chaos Rising, a Percy Jackson spinoff series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1-Alex

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE NOTE: Apollo features heavily in the plot line of this story. I have been working on this book since 2014, way before Rick Riordan even announced his plans for the Trials of Apollo. I'm making sure to post it before May 3, 2016, when The Hidden Oracle comes out to avoid any suspicion that I might have copied Rick's ideas or depictions of Apollo. This book and all the future books of the Chaos Rising series should be read as a continuation of the Percy Jackson universe set three years after the last Heroes of Olympus book BUT SEPARATE AND UNRELATED to the upcoming Trials of Apollo books. Thanks so much for reading, I hope you like it!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A normal in-school suspension for Alex gets cut short by a power outage.

Chapter 1

_Alex_

 

“Ooookay. I’ve heard enough,” Mister G said. He leaned forward on his elbows on his desk. “Alex, we’ve been through this time and time again. You cannot read during lectures! It’s disrespectful, and you won’t learn,” he protested exasperatedly.

“But I can! I can do both, I can read _and_ listen. You’ve got to believe me, I can remember anything I’ve ever read. I don’t even _need_ to pay attention in class, all I have to do is look over the homework once and I’ve got it! What’s the difference if my grades stay the same anyway?” I pleaded.

I was hoping I could wiggle out of trouble this time. The last thing my mom needed was to leave in the middle of a work day and drive all the way out to outer Chicago to pick me up from school. If anybody in this school was going to let me off the hook, it would be him. Even just by looking around his office you could tell he wasn’t like most guidance counselors (and believe me. I’d seen a LOT of guidance counselors’ offices).  There were no Hang-In-There kitten posters or hokey stress balls. Just a couple of chairs, a mini-fridge, a desk, and one of those big, ugly couches you only find in college dorms and on street corners. It was a pretty comfortable room, but it lost its novelty after the first, say, dozen visits.

“This is your fifth in-school suspension,” Mr. G said apologetically, “You know what that means.”

I made my very best gosh-I’m-so-sorry-it-won’t-happen-again face, but I already knew I was a goner. I never could pull it off right, not even on my own mother. She always told me it was my eyes. They were too stormy, too calculating. Too clever for my own good.

“Don’t even try it, kiddo. You’re gonna have to call your mom.” He looked genuinely sorry.

Just then, the lights overhead flickered once, twice, then went out altogether.  The room became eerily silent as the whirring of the desk computer, the air conditioner, and the mini-fridge faded away.

The tap of high-heeled shoes on thin carpet approached Mister G’s door. It swung open, and I could see in the light of the back wall window that it was the secretary from the front desk.

“Greg?” she said, “One of the construction workers in the new wing hit a power line. We’re sending the kids home.”

Silhouetted against the window light, I couldn’t see Mister G’s smile, but I could hear it in his voice. “You’re one lucky kid,” he mused, shaking his head. “You get off easy this time, but you might as well still call your mom and tell her to come pick you up. You don’t ride the bus home, do you?”

“No,” I replied. He didn’t mention that the only reason I didn’t ride the bus was because I’d been kicked out of my last school district. School-of-choice kids had to have their parents drive them. The buses didn’t go as far into the inner city as we lived.

“Phones might be dead. You got a cell?” Mister G asked.

“Mom won’t let me get one.”

“That’s okay. You can use mine,” he said,  shifting in his chair to retrieve an iPhone from his pocket and hand it to me across his desk. I punched in the number for my mom’s work and waited. After four rings, it went to voicemail.

“Hello, you’ve reached the reference desk. We’re currently unavailable, but if you’ll leave your name and number and the content you’re interested in, we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks, and have a great day.”

“Hey mom, it’s me. Yeah, the power went out at school… Uhuh? ...Yeah… Please? Okay…. Alright. Mhm! Okie doke, see you soon!” I hung up and smiled at Mister G. “She’ll be here real soon,” I lied.

“Alright. You can go,” Mr. G. resigned. I got up to leave and hoisted my backpack onto my shoulder. Mr G. stopped me for a moment longer. “Alex? Not that I don’t love spending time with you, but… let’s try to stay out of my office for the rest of the year, okay? It’s only November.” He sounded desperate. I tried for a smile,  but it probably looked as hopeless as I felt.

“Sure thing, Mr. G.”

I should probably introduce myself so you don’t get too confused. Trust me, it only gets weirder from here. My name’s Alex (you picked that up, I reckon). For my first eleven years of life, I lived in an apartment in Chicago with my mom and our cat. She worked in a library and brought me up, working as a single mom with what the school board called a “troubled” son. I was always healthy, safe, and pretty normal, give or take a few expulsions.

Then one day, everything changed. That day started with an in-school suspension and a power outage.

The front office was bathed in blue and gray shadows, making it almost impossible to navigate through the desks. Lucky for me, I’d been there so often I could walk it with my eyes closed.  Out to the front lobby to sit and reflect on what a complete idiot I was.

_Gee whiz, why didn’t I just say she couldn’t pick me up?_

I’d really dug my own grave now. What was I supposed to do? I could ask a friend for a ride home, but I didn’t really have any friends. I couldn’t take the buses like the other kids. It was starting to look like my only options were to walk two hours home in the freezing November wind or wait for my mom to get my voicemail and come get me. I chose the second option, got comfortable on one of the couches in the lobby, and cracked open my copy of _The Hobbit_.

Just when Bilbo was about to get killed (again— go figure), I was interrupted.

“Excuse me, little boy? Do you have a ride home?” asked a sickly sweet voice. I glanced up in surprise. Standing before me was a woman I’d never seen before.

She had blonde ringlets cascading down to her shoulders and one of those grey blazer-suit skirt outfits that I thought only lawyers and flight attendants wore. She was pretty, but she made me feel uneasy. Maybe I just really didn’t like being called _little boy_. Either way, I wanted out of there.

“Uhhh, actually, I was just about to walk home! Just wanted the bus traffic to clear out a little,” I smiled, closing my book. She seemed to be studying me with those golden brown eyes… yikes. She was sending my fight-or-flight reflexes off the charts.

I made a big show of packing my stuff into my backpack, then turned around to say goodbye, but she was gone. I caught a glimpse of golden curls and grey fabric disappearing into the dark front office. I shuddered.

I didn’t want to be sitting there when she found her way back out into the lobby, so I zipped up my green jacket and shuffled out to the parking lot, unsure of what to do next. Lucky for me, I spotted a steel-blue Jeep with the license plate “KIDS 1ST” just as it was pulling out of its parking spot.

“Mr G!” I called, waving my arms to grab his attention. The Jeep pulled up beside me and Mr. G rolled down the window closest to me.

“Alex? What are you doing?”

I leaned against the car door and smiled sheepishly.

“Can you give me a ride home?”


	2. Chapter 2-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unsettling phone call sets Alex's mother in a hurry to send him away from home, but he has no idea where, why, or how.

Chapter 2

_Alex_

 

            Mr. G said that he had some shopping to do in Chicago proper anyway, so it wasn’t a bother to drive me home. I sort of didn’t believe him, but it was nice of him to try and make me feel like less of an inconvenience. That’s more than most teachers did, for sure.

            He dropped me off on the block of my building and told me to “stay out of trouble.” Wish I could be so lucky. I thanked him and said I’d see him tomorrow, then trudged into my apartment building and up the three flights of stairs to the fourth floor.

            Once I unlocked the door, I dropped my backpack on the floor with a massive sigh. Talk about exhaustion. Nothing emotionally drained me like getting suspended and encountering strange women in business wear in the same day.  With a loud groan, I slogged into my bedroom and flopped onto the dark green quilt of my bed, one arm hanging over the side.

            “School. Hate school,” I moaned.

            Just then, I felt something soft brush my hand. A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.

            “Hi, Bounce.” Bounce chirped appreciatively.

            Bounce is my cat. She’s also the greatest cat ever. She was born with a neurological disorder, which basically means when her brain tells her “go this way!” it gets a little jumbled on the way to her paws. She can’t walk in a straight line to save her life. Everytime she walks, her head bounces like a dashboard bobblehead. That’s why we call her Bounce.

            I patted the bed next to me. Bounce trilled in delight, and after accidentally running into the bed frame, she jumped up besides me. Reaching under my pillow, I pulled out a hardcover of _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone_. It had been a rough day. I’d earned a little cat-and-book time, in my humble opinion.

            Bounce was warm, the bed was comfortable, and Harry was probably in terrible danger. I don’t remember, because soon afterwards I fell asleep.

 

* * *

           

            “You sleep any harder on that book and you’re gonna get chapter six tattooed all over your face.”

I blinked and yawned.  “Mom?”

“Hey, little man. Got your voicemail. How did you get home?”

I sat up and groggily muttered  “Mr. G. gave me a ride.”

“Bless him.” She sat down on the bed. The world finally came back into focus as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. My mom smiled, brushing a long strand of bright orange hair behind her ear. “Since you got out so early, we can swing by the bookstore before dinner if you get cleaned up.”

That woke me up. “Okay!” I agreed.

“You’ve got fifteen minutes. Ready, set, go!”

I clambered to my feet as she swept out of my room in her blue and white striped sweater. Bounce swaggered after her, yowling for canned food or catnip.

I rushed to the bathroom to clean myself up. I took a look at myself in the mirror. My stupid blonde hair was all pushed to one side from falling asleep on a book. I fixed it as best as I could and splashed some water over my face. The results were unimpressive.

            My hair was difficult. Definitely not straight, but not coordinated enough to be wavy. My mom always called it “fluffy.” Thanks, mom. Real macho. My face wasn’t that great either. Nothing remarkable to report, save a spattering of light freckles across my cheeks that I actually kind of liked. They were the one thing that made me look like my mother’s son. With her caramel eyes and her long, orange hair, freckles were the only thing we had in common, but hers were darker. The blondness and the grey eyes I must have gotten from my dad. That was about _all_ I got from my dad, since I’d never actually met him.

            We didn’t talk about him, no matter how curious I got. One time when I was little, only eight or nine, I pushed my mom too hard on the subject. I wouldn’t stop asking who he was, where he was, was he dead, how did she meet him, why did he go.

            “It’s not as simple as all that, Alex,” she’d tried to explain.

            “You never tell me anything! Don’t I at least deserve to know who my own father is?” I’d demanded. She snapped.

            “You don’t _have_ a father!” she’d shouted, choking back sobs. She had tried to calm down, told me she’d tell me more when she could, but she wasn’t ready yet. “Please. Just give me a little more time.”

            I never asked again.

            I gave myself one more cursory glance in the mirror and ran a hand through my hair, then dashed out to the living room.    

            “Time!” mom called. “Eight minutes, forty-three seconds. Not your best, but close enough for government work. You ready to go?”

I nodded.

            We took the elevator down to the apartment lobby and caught a bus at the corner. Mom complained about the man at work who insisted that even though reference books were never, ever, ever for use outside the library, he was a special case. Then she asked my least favorite question.

            “How was school?” I shifted uncomfortably in my bus seat.

            “Awesome!” I replied.

            Remember how I mentioned I got kicked out of my last school? For “chronic insubordination”? When that happened, my mom considered sending me to military school. I remember the conversation like it was yesterday. Mom sat down with me on the beater couch in our living room with that same holding-back-tears kind of voice.

            “Alex, are… are you happy in school? Because there are—  there’s an alternative for— for kids like you. If this isn’t working out, it might be better to send you there, and you could—  you could still come back on holidays and visit, and––and––” she started stumbling over her own words and trying to hide her tears. She didn’t have to tell me what she meant: bootcamp. No thank you.

            So I smiled, and promised I would try better at the new school, and promised myself that if she ever asked how school was, the answer was “great” or “super” or “awesome”. My mom did the best she could with what we had. She really didn’t need a problem child like me making things worse.

            “Any suspensions today?” she asked as the bus came to another stop.

            “Only one, but it didn’t count because the power went out.” I turned to smile at her, but something caught my eye.

A flash of gold and grey entered the bus as the front doors opened. My grin turned to shock as the golden haired woman from the school stepped in, grinning wickedly.

_How can she be here?_

Her eyes systematically swept across the passengers and made me feel like electricity and ice were being poured into the marrow of my bones. Before I knew what I was doing, I grabbed my mom by the arm and went flying down the aisle and out the rear doors of the bus.

            “Alex!” she yelped in alarm and surprise, stumbling as our feet met the sidewalk. The bus doors closed, and the bus pulled away. I heaved a sigh of relief. Mom studied my face. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost! What was that all about?”

            “I just… thought I saw something freaky,” I confessed. My mom wasn’t the kind of person to play the overactive-imagination card on me, so I knew she would believe me about the golden-haired woman if I told her, but I didn’t want to freak her out. Still, she looked anxious.

            “Are you feeling okay?” She put a hand to my forehead. I brushed it away with embarrassment.

            “Yes! I’m fine! I just… think we should walk, is all,” I fudged. She didn’t look satisfied with that explanation, but she let it go.

            “Okay. A little fresh air never hurt anybody, I guess,” she said, squinting against the freezing Chicago wind. “Let’s go.”

            The walk to the bookstore was long and cold, and the sky was dark by the time we got there. I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I usually do. Every time somebody coughed an aisle over, I jumped out of my skin. Every time somebody moved on the edge of my vision, I thought it was the golden-haired woman. By the time we left, I was on edge, suspicious, and worst of all, I hadn’t even picked out any books. Mom still looked worried.

            “Are you _sure_ you’re feeling okay?” She asked at least a billion times on the way out. She decided that a cab home was a better idea than the bus after my little incident, so we splurged and took a taxi back to our apartment building.

            After a long ride, we stepped onto the curb in front of our building and took the elevator up to our apartment. Bounce ran to meet us at the door(and only ran into the coffee table once on the way). I picked her up and scratched her between her shoulder blades while my mom brushed past me and hung up her coat.

            “I think somebody’s following me,” I finally confessed.  “Or else I’m hallucinating. After school today, there was this strange woman who went into the office after everybody else had gone. I don’t know why she freaked me out so bad… she just gave me a weird feeling, you know? And I thought–I thought I saw her on the bus.”

Saying that all out loud made me feel really stupid, but my mom didn’t seem to think so. Instead, she sat on the armrest of the couch with a look of concern.

            “What did she look like?” she asked.

            “She had blonde, curly hair. Kind of dressed like a business woman or something,” I replied, trying to remember. “She just _looked scary_. I don’t mean she was ugly, she was really pretty, I guess. But she just had this face like she wanted to eat me or something,”  I thought Bounce was shaking in my arms. Then I realized I was the one shaking. Mom didn’t say anything for a minute.

            When the landline rang, we both flinched.

            “I’ll get that,” she said. She disappeared into the kitchen. I held my breath and tried to catch a few words. What I did catch didn’t make anysense.

            “Hello? ...Yes, this is she… From the school? ...I’m sorry, Alex isn’t home right now… No, it’s a bad time. I’m afraid I can’t receive visitors at the moment. No, I have to insist. Goodbye.”  The phone slammed into its receiver. Mom didn’t come out of the kitchen.

            “Alex, go to your room and pack a bag. Just enough for a few nights. Be fast about it.”

            “What? Mom, who was on the phone–– ?”

            “Go, Alex, Now!”

            “Who was on the phone?”

            “Please, do as I say!” She pleaded. She had the same frustration in her voice as the last time I asked about my father. I dropped Bounce and scrambled to my room.

            I had a thousand questions I wanted to ask as I dug an old messenger bag out of the back of my closet. I tried to imagine what I would need to pack if I were going on a weekend camping trip and not in the middle of a whirlwind of uncertainty and panic. A fistful of T-shirts and socks, a pair of jeans, a pair of pajama pants, a heavy-duty flashlight with extra batteries (luckily I didn’t have to dig around for those––they were in the drawer of my bedside table for those late night reading marathons), toothbrush, a couple books, and some other spare items I didn’t really think about.

            Something brushed my calf. It was Bounce. “I’m not going anywhere without you,” I promised. Shouldering my messenger bag, I scooped her up in one arm and dashed out to the kitchen.

Mom was still there, stuffing papers into a big envelope. In the far corner of the linoleum floor, Bounce’s pet supplies were gathered in a heap. I ran over, shoved a handful of catnip mice in one pocket, and hoisted a five pound bag of food in my free arm.

“Alex, we need to go right n––what are you _doing?_ ” my mom spun around, stopping mid-sentence. “Put that down!”

“Mom, if—  if we’re running away, we have to take Bounce!” I cried. I couldn’t leave her behind, I just couldn’t. She was my best friend. I didn’t mean to start tearing up, but I did. My mom’s stern expression faltered.

“We’re not running away. There’s no time to explain, we have to leave _now._ Put her down.”

I realized for the first time that my mom didn’t have a bag packed. A pang of wariness shot through me. If she wasn’t coming with me, then where was I going? I dropped the bag of cat food and lowered Bounce to the floor.

“You be good, girl. I love you,” I muttered, only crying a little bit. I kissed her forehead. She chirped in reply. It seemed like that was as much of a goodbye as I was going to get. As I got to my feet, my mom grabbed my hand.

“We have to take the fire escape,” she urged.

“Why can’t we––” I stopped as she shot me a look. Clearly, she wasn’t in the mood for questions.

We went out the kitchen’s back door.  Outside, the metal gratings of the fire escape stairway looked unstable and uninviting, but I stepped out after my mom, who clambered down the steps so quickly that the whole stairway shook, and I stumbled over my feet trying to keep up.  

Before I knew it, we’d sped down three flights of stairs, pulled down the ladder that led from the second floor to street level, and run out to the main street. Mom caught a cab and squeezed into the back seat with me. Finally, I had the chance to catch my breath.

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

“Union Station, as quick as possible, please,” she asked the driver, ignoring me.

“Mom, what’s happening???” She took a deep breath.

            “Alex, you’re… you’re not like other kids. I can’t explain right now,” she muttered, shooting a suspicious glance at the cab driver. “I should have told you sooner.... You’re different. It’s not safe for you to be here anymore. You’re going somewhere for kids like you.”

            Kids like me? Frequent detention attendees? Delinquents? Who was on the phone? What did the gold-haired woman have to do with all of this? Why was mom so scared? Where was I going? There were too many questions to ask. All I could get out was “What did I do wrong?”

            “You didn’t do anything wrong, Alex.” She quickly turned around in her seat to glance out the back window, then turned back to me. “There’s not enough time to tell you everything, so listen to me.” She handed me the large envelope. “Inside this envelope is everything you’ll need to get to camp.”

            “Camp?”

            “A summer camp where you’ll be safe.”

            “It’s _November!_ ” I protested. She ignored me. The cab turned a corner illegally fast. The driver was taking “as quick as possible” a little too literally for my stomach’s liking.

            “Do NOT lose this envelope,” she urged. “Inside, there’s a train ticket to New York City. Once you’re there, you’ll need to find transportation to Long Island. There’s two hundred dollars in cash in here for food, transport, and emergencies, and a piece of paper with the camp address on it.  Don’t use any cell phones, don’t get into trouble, and get there as soon as possible. I’ll call you there when I can. Be safe. You remember the rule from when you were little?”

            “If you can’t find a police officer, find another mom,” I recited. That’s how you survived as a kid in a big, big city.

            “Union station,” the driver announced. The train station looked enormous, made of white marble and Greek-looking pillars that loomed over the sidewalk.

            “You have to go, Alex,” my mom pressed.

            “I want to stay with you,” I begged.

            “You can’t.” Her voice cracked. She pulled me close and hugged me hard. Then I was out on the sidewalk and in the cold evening air. I wish I had known how long it would be before I saw her again. I would have done something or said something better. Even just “I love you.” Instead, all I could do was watch with disbelief as the taxi carried my mother into an indistinguishable stream of headlights, leaving me alone.

            I had never felt so abandoned in my entire life.

 


	3. Chapter 3-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A grey-eyes woman helps Alex find his train, where he meets a new friend and sort of commits murder.

Chapter 3

_Alex_

 

            Union Station looked even more intimidating on the inside. The architecture was outstanding with its gleaming white marble pillars and skylight ceiling. The building was crowded with a natural hustle and bustle of people. Any other day I would be excited, but now the excitement of the station just fed into my confusion.

            I wandered around forever looking for some kind of informational desk, all the while wondering how to explain “why yes, I am a twelve-year-old traveling through half a dozen states on my own. Where’s your cause for concern?” I’d only ever ridden the subway alone before. I had no idea what to do next.

            Finally, I slumped down in defeat on one of the long, polished wood benches in the main hall. I turned my ticket over in my hands, hoping I had missed some piece of information that would help me out. Just when I was considering using the money in the envelope to catch a taxi home and trying really, really hard to make things go back to normal, somebody spoke to me.

            “Can I help you find something?” I jumped, jolted out of deep thought by a woman in a dress shirt and slacks in front of me. Her name tag said “Attie.”She had her long black hair pinned up almost the same exact way my mom did while working at the library. Maybe that’s why she gave me such a peculiar sense of familiarity. So instead of brushing her off, I answered “Yes please, ma’am.”

            “Oh?” her grey eyes studied me intriguingly.

            “How do I find the 8:30 train to New York City? I’ve… I’ve never ridden a train alone before.”

            “And you’re traveling on your own?” she asked calmly.

            “Yes, ma’am.”

            “Your mother must be praying for your safe passage.”

            “I sure hope so!” I replied with a polite smile, because it would have been rude to tell her we didn’t go to church unless it was Christmas and my mother wasn’t the praying type.

            “Why don’t you take one of these?” She offered me a plastic bag with UNION STATION written on the side. It was full of informational literature-- maps, schedules, brochures, and a bunch of other stuff I didn’t have the time to look through. I put it in my messenger bag for easy access.

            Ms. Attie told me precisely how to find my train and board it without trouble. It was a lot to remember, and I have trouble focusing on long-winded things that aren’t written down, but I managed to retain enough information.

            “Thank you,” I said when she finished.

            “You’re welcome, Alex.”

            It wasn’t until half an hour later when I was sitting on the train, waiting to depart that I wondered how she knew my name.

 

* * *

 

            The train had seats kind of like an airplane, two per row. I sat in the very back, next to the bathrooms and the door leading to the next car. There weren’t many people seated when I got there, but soon the train filled up. Nobody sat next to me.

            _Just like lunch_ , I thought dryly.

            Just when the train seemed about to depart, one more passenger came down the aisle, looking for a seat. There weren’t any. He looked a little younger than me, maybe, but I couldn’t tell much about him because of the faded, grey winter jacket that came up to his chin and the equally grey beanie covered his hair, except for one messy dark brown lock that hung down over a pair of thick, square, black rimmed glasses.

            Finally, he reached the back row where my satchel and I were taking up the last two seats.

            “Can I sit with you?” he asked. His voice sounded younger than I thought it would and he asked like he expected me to say no.

            “Yeah, ‘course!” I moved my bag onto my lap and patted the seat besides me. He hesitated.

            “Can I have the window seat? I’m afraid I might get train sick.”

            “Sure.”

            The train started to move as we traded places. As I sat down, something caught on the sleeve of my jacket. A loose thread was tangled in something on the other boy’s wrist. It looked like some kind of bracelet, but before I could untangle it from my sleeve, he tugged the thread out and hurriedly stuffed the bracelet back in his sleeve, muttering an apology.

            “What’s that?” I asked.

            “Just some… good luck charm thing. Some dumb thing,” he responded, embarrassed. I changed the subject.

“Do you usually get train sick?”

“Dunno. I’ve never been on a train before.”

“You must not be from around here!” I laughed. “Not even the subway? That doesn’t really count as a _train_ train, I guess, but it’s something. If you get sick anywhere, you’ll get sick there.”

“Oh.”

“This is my first time on a train by myself, though. I’m kind of scared,” I admitted.

“Uh huh.”

“I’ve had kind of a weird day, to be honest.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. So where you headed?”

“Yep.”

“...Are you listening?”

“Cool.”

_Looks like it’s gonna be a silent ride,_ I thought. _A silent, twenty-one hour ride._

I rummaged around in my bag for my iPod. That’s when the other kid’s face lit up.

“Is that an iPhone?” he asked excitedly.

“No, just an iPod touch. My mom won’t let me get a cell phone,” I said.

“Does it have music”

“Mostly just audio books.”

“Oh…” his face fell.

“But—But I think I have the Harry Potter soundtracks,” I offered.

“Can we listen to them?”

“Sure!” I untangled my headphones and handed him one. “What’s your name?”

“Orion. I’ve never seen the Harry Potter movies.”

I gasped. “Never? Have you at least read the books?”

“No, I’m bad at reading,” Orion said.

“Are you dyslexic?”

“I don’t know what that is. What’s happening in this part?” He asked as Hedwig’s theme began to play. I should have warned the poor guy. Never get me started on Harry Potter unless you want to know _everything_ about Harry Potter. Lucky for me, we had a twenty-one hour train ride to fill.

The train chugged along as the music played, and Orion punctuated track after track with “and then what?” and “what about now?” I told him everything I could remember.

By the time I got to the part where (spoilers) Snape kills Dumbledore, Orion had stopped asking questions between songs. I glanced over. His head leaned  against the window, glasses askew, out cold. With an enormous yawn, I realized how tired I was myself. Outside, the sky had gone dark. The constant hum of train against track became surprisingly comforting, and soon I too fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

            _Ouch. My neck is sore as all get out. Is it a Saturday? Did I oversleep? It must be a Saturday, Mom would have woken me up otherwise. I should get up. Gotta feed Bounce. Why is it so cold?_

            I opened my eyes to the back of a train seat. My heart sank all the way down to my feet.

            _Oh. That’s right. I guess yesterday_ wasn’t _a dream._

            Orion still slumped against the window, fast asleep. Outside, the sky was bright but cloudy. Acres and acres of grey-brown-green-blue woods rushed by at top speed. I wondered what time it was.

            “Hey, Orion, do you know how much longer he have?” I asked, tapping his shoulder. He swatted at me lethargically.

“Do _not_ wake me up…” he mumbled. I decided not to. The longer he got to sleep in, the shorter the trip would seem for him. Wish _I_ could have slept the entire train ride away.

            Holy cow, I was stiff. My legs were all scrunched and my neck felt all achey. I stood up in the aisle and stretched my arms high above my head. Boy, that felt good. Nothing starts a morning off right like a good stretch. Of course, nothing ruins a morning like noticing a very familiar set of blonde curls several rows ahead of me. My blood turned to cold.

_How can she be here??? That’s impossible!_ Yet there she was, flight attendant suit and all.

            “Uh… Orion? Wanna switch seats again?” I asked, prodding him in the shoulder.

            “Mhmmm. Jussa minute.”

            “IIIII don’t really have a minute,” I urged. The golden haired woman stood up and turned to walk to the back of the car. I yanked the hood of my jacket over my head to hide my face and grabbed my satchel. “Okay, I’m gonna go to the bathroom, be right back!” I panicked. Orion grunted in reply.

            _Don’t panic, don’t panic, don’t panic. Be cool. Be casual. Keep your head down._  I pulled on the bathroom door, frantically rapping on it with my knuckles. The door was locked, but nobody inside answered. As the woman drew closer, I did the only thing I could think of. I slid the door open to the next car and darted inside.  

            In between train cars, there was a small room where they connected. It was small, barely big enough for two people to walk past each other, and cold. I lunged for the opposite door and tugged with all my might. It didn’t budge. The sound of the door behind me sliding open filled me with dread.

            “Can I help you with that, little boy?”

            I whirled around. The gold-haired woman closed the door to our train car behind her. I stood with my back pressed against the other car door. Trapped.

            “No, I don’t need any help. I’ll think I’ll just go back to my seat now,” I laughed nervously. She didn’t move.

            “I don’t think so,” she said. “I’ve gone to too much trouble to let you go that easily.” For a second, I thought her eyes flickered red. I really was losing it.  

            “T—Trouble? I don’t mean to be any trouble.” I gripped my bag defensively in front of my heart. The woman grinned. I only had enough time to realize that behind her pink-lipsticked lips were a set of fangs before she lunged at me with well-manicured nails bent like talons.

            Instinctively, I crouched to the floor. Her nails scraped against the train car door above my head with a sound of crunching metal. She glared down at me and hissed.

            “Please, I—I don’t mean any harm,” I begged, groping hopelessly in my bag for anything I could use to defend myself. Just as she dove at me with a snake-faced snarl, my fingers closed around what I thought was my flashlight. Without thinking, I swung it at her face.

            The woman burst into a powdery yellow cloud that reminded me of the time I knocked over a one-gallon container of powdered lemonade. The only difference was that the lemonade didn’t scream.

            I sat trembling on the floor between train cars. In my hands was the hilt of a razor-sharp bronze sword that was definitely not my flashlight.

_I don’t remember packing that_.  

I shook with the realization of what I’d just done.

            After centuries, the car door slid open. There stood Orion, prismatic blue eyes wide behind his glasses lenses.

            “I —I k—killed her,” I whimpered. The sword trembled in my hands.

            Orion silently took in the drifts of yellow dust gathering in the corners, the claw marks in the metal door, and the sword in my hands.

            “Let’s go back to our seats,” he said.

As Orion led the way back to our seats, I placed the foot sword back in my bag in an unreal haze. It disappeared into the satchel as if it were perfectly reasonable for a massive blade to fit in a moderately sized bag without adding any weight to it. I didn’t try to question it.

            We sat in silence for a long time. My mind kept replaying those three seconds: a flash of metal, an unearthly howl, _POOF,_ no more flight attendant.

            “What… what just happened?” I asked after a while.

            “That wasn’t a real person, Alex. It was some kind of monster, and it was going to kill you. But it didn’t, because you killed it first. Whoopie for you.” He kept his gaze fixed out the window.

            “I killed her,” I repeated.

            “Not a real person. Doesn’t make you a killer. Just a little unlucky,” he said.

            “Is this… something you’ve had to deal with before?” I asked.

            “It’s only a couple more hours until we reach New York. You’ll feel better when we get there.”

            I hoped he was right.

 


	4. Chapter 4-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex and Orion take a cab to long island and run into a spot of trouble with a hell hound.

Chapter 4

_Alex_

 

            For the rest of the ride, Orion and I made small talk with each other. Orion didn’t say a lot. I got the feeling he didn’t like to talk. By the time the train pulled into Penn Station, I had almost managed to forget about my near-death experience in the midst of all my anxiety about being alone in a new city.

            I gathered up my bag and jacket and turned to Orion.

            “Is this your stop?” I asked. I knew there the train was stopping in a couple more cities after New York.

            “Might as well be,” Orion shrugged, following me out of the train.

As we stepped out of the train station, I rummaged through my bag for the envelope my mom had given me.

“I’m supposed to be finding some kind of summer camp,” I told Orion, “Weird, isn’t it, a summer camp in the middle of November? I’ve got the address somewhere in here, I know I do. Anyway, where are you going?”

He didn’t answer. I glanced up to find him staring open-mouthed at the skyscrapers.

“It’s so _tall_ ,” he whispered in awe.

“Not really… it’s about average big city height,” I squinted. “Where did you say you were from again?”

“Nowhere like _this_ ,” he replied wondrously. “Wow.”

_Country folk._ I rolled my eyes. I let him have a moment to soak it all in before pushing the matter again.

“Soooo where are you going? Do you want to share a cab?” I asked. Knocked out of his dreamy haze, Orion shifted uncomfortably.

“Um...  I don’t have any money,” he muttered, staring at his shoes and tugging nervously at the bracelet on his wrist.

“How did you get on the train, then?” I asked jokingly.  He cleared his throat.

“I, er, borrowed some funds,” he answered, Suddenly I felt a pang of suspicion.

“You mean like stealing?” I asked. He didn’t answer. “...Are you running away from home or something?”

“Or something.”

_Darn it, what’s it gonna take to get a straight answer out of you?_ I thought to myself. I sighed.

“Well, let’s stick together anyway. It’s not safe to travel on your own in a place like this,” I decided. He looked pretty grateful for that. “Wanna grab a bite?”

“I don’t have any money,” he repeated.

“That’s alright, I’ve got enough.”

“You don’t have to do that — ” he began to protest, but his stomach audibly growled in protest.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Half an hour later, sharing hot dogs with Orion on a bench, I rummaged through my mom’s envelope and my Union Station bag. Somehow the sword I’d used to dust that vampire lady had made its way into the Union Station bag even though I didn’t put it there. Weird.

“My mom wrote down the name and address of this place I have to go… I guess we’ll have to take a ferry or something. It’s on Long Island. Some place called Camp Half-Blood?” I mused. Orion choked on his hot dog.

“Camp _what?_ ”

“Camp Half-Blood. Funny name for a summer camp. Do you know it?” I asked. Orion chewed thoughtfully on another bite.

“I’ve heard of it. Never been there. You’re in for a whole new kind of crazy, my friend,” he answered, shaking his head.

“Huh? Crazy? Why?”

“It’s hard to explain. Let’s just get you there as fast as we can, or funny summer camp names are gonna be the least of our worries.”

Just then, a small cardstock card with a large round token rubber cemented to it fell out of my bag. I picked it up and turned it over.

“Hey, look at this! It says there’s a complimentary taxi service for student-aged travelers reaching their destination anywhere in the NYC area with the use of one of these,” I flashed the odd coin at Orion. Even though the day was overcast, the coin gave off a dull shine. It was stamped with ancient looking symbols, like something you might buy at a renaissance fair. “That lady from the train station must deal with a lot of young people headed to New York. That was real nice of her.”

I flipped the card over in my hands. The back was covered in writing. A header in gothic black script read **INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE**. Beneath that were step by step directions.

**STEP ONE: SUMMON THE TAXI WITH THE INCANTATION**

Below that were the letters from a language I’d never seen before. _Greek_ , I thought. _Wait. How did I know that?_ I shook it off and kept reading.

**STEP TWO: CAST ONE DRACHMA INTO THE ROAD**

_That must be this thing._ I turned the token over in my hand. This had to be a joke. There wasn’t any taxi service I knew of that could be called with magic words and a (probably fake) gold coin. Maybe it was a New Yorker thing. Where I was from, we just whistled.

“How am I even supposed to know how to pronounce this?” I wondered out loud.

“Don’t worry. I have a feeling you’ll be able to get it,” Orion said. “Are you gonna finish that?” he added hopefully, eyeballing the half hotdog left on my lap.

“It’s all yours, dude. Alright, here goes nothing —   _Stêthi 'Ô hárma diabolês._ ” The words fell naturally off my tongue, and as I said them my mind translated them as _Stop, Chariot of Damnation_. I had no idea how I knew that, but it sure didn’t make the taxi service sound very reliable. Before I could have second thoughts, I flipped the coin into the road.

With a crack like a whip, a rusty yellow cab appeared directly in front of us where a moment earlier there had been nothing. Nobody on the sidewalks seemed to notice. A woman walking her dog swerved casually around the parked car and paid it no mind. The door of the cab swung open of its own accord.

“You know, I bet we could swim to Long Island if we really put our minds to it,” I gulped.

“Nah. This is faster. C’mon,” Orion said. He licked a stripe of mustard off one finger, wiped his hands on his dirty grey jeans, scooted into the backseat, and patted the the seat next to him. With a sense of dread, I followed him inside.

The interior of the cab was entirely ashy grey-black. Instead of seatbelts, there were chains. Mom always told me to buckle up, but I thought just this once she would make an exception. In the front seat, three hunched old women sat side by side. I couldn’t see their faces. The whole car smelled like a nursing home filled with burning rubber.   _Chicago cabs don’t look like this_ , I shuddered inwardly.

“Where to?” one of them croaked.

“Uh, thirty-one forty-one Farm Road,” I read off my mom’s letter. Orion craned his neck to read over my shoulder.

“Three point one four one Farm Road,” he corrected. I squinted at what I thought had been a smudge after her three.

“But that doesn’t make sense. How can an address have a decimal?” I questioned. Before he could answer, there was another whip crack, and the cab blasted into motion. The buildings outside the window became a blur. My head smacked into the headrest behind me with the force of the acceleration. _Pretty sure we’re going over the speed limit. I think I’m gonna lose my hot dog._

“What’s going on?!” I shouted over the roar of the taxi. One of the women in front cackled.

“The Gray Sisters’ Taxi is the fastest mode of transportation anywhere in the New York area. We’ll get you there in two shakes of a centaur’s tail.” She screeched.

“I’d rather get there in one piece!” I replied. If they heard me, they sure as heck didn’t slow down.

The entire way there, the women cackled and screamed at each other, pulling each other’s hair and bickering about things I didn’t understand, probably because I was trying not to throw up. Orion looked more annoyed than anything else, but it was hard to tell with him. At one point, the windows became obscured with enormous ridges of water spraying up from the tires. It seemed like we were driving on water, but that’s impossible.

The car came to a halt so quickly I almost hurtled into the front seat. The back seat doors popped open on their own.

“This is as far as we go,” one old woman creaked, pointing a gnarled finger up at the dirt road ahead of us. “Five miles that way, just keep going straight. You’ll find it.”

“Five miles???” I protested, “Why can’t you just drive use the rest of the way?”

The women simultaneously whipped around to scowl at me. Their skin hung off their faces in disheveled grey folds, and all of their eyes sockets were empty except for one of the driver’s, which held one yellowing, bloodshot eye. I yelped and scrambled out of the car, landing on my hands and knees on the cold ground outside. With a sharp crack, the taxi was out of sight.

“Sorry they dropped us off so far away. Drachma inflation has really cut down on the perks of their business,” Orion apologized, pulling me to my feet.

_What is anybody even talking about anymore?_

“Let’s just get to camp,” I heaved. Orion was breathing even harder than I was. “Do you want to catch your breath for a second?” I offered.

“No,  I’m fine,” he answered. That was funny... even though he was speaking, I could still hear his heavy breathing at the same time. Even funnier, I could almost feel it on the back of my neck, even though he was standing in front of me.

“...Uh oh.” Orion said. His wasn’t looking at me anymore. His gaze was somewhere above my head. I turned around slowly. Standing behind me was the a jet black dog the size of a baby elephant with strings of drool dribbling from its mouth. Its hot, rancid breath hit me in the face. It roared. I screamed. We ran.

I turned to run in the direction of the summer camp, but Orion must have been smarter than I was, because he yanked me into the woods off to the side of the road. Within a moment, I could see why. The huge black dog was faster than I would have guessed. On the open road it would have caught us in a second, but it wasn’t good at changing direction. Running through the  trees was the only hope he had of leaving it in the dust.

Thorns caught on my jeans and branches scraped at my face, but the cold air numbed the scratches. All I could really feel was unadulterated terror.

When my lungs were about to burst, I slowed to a walk and tried to catch my breath. I had lost track of Orion.

“Orion?” I called. “Where are you?” _Please don’t be dog chow_.

“Up here,” came his voice from above. Following the trunk of the nearest tree,  I could just barely make out his form among its branches.

“What are you doing up there?”

“Dogs don’t climb.”

“Can you get down?”

“Yep.”

With expert technique, he began his descent. It was a thing of wonder to a city slicker like me. The most climbing I ever did was on a the monkey bars in a park. This kid looked like he’d been living in the trees for years. Right when he was about to step down on the branch just above my head, a sharp bark echoed nearby in the woods. I jumped with a start. Orion missed his footing and came crashing to the forest floor.

“Are you alright?” I asked frantically. He nodded, but grimaced.

“Help me up,” he said through gritted teeth. I tried to pull him to his feet, but the second he placed weight on his right foot he gasped in pain.

“My ankle,” he grimaced, “I think it’s broken.”

Another bark sounded through the trees, even closer.

“We gotta get out of here. Here, put your arm around my neck,” I urged.

“Forget it. I don’t like to be touched,” Orion protested, but I scooped him up in my arms before he could limp away. No way was I gonna let some little kid get eaten by Clifford the Big Angry Psycho Dog on my watch. I don’t mean to make myself sound like a hero — it wasn’t exactly hard to pick Orion up. He was tiny. Even with his backpack, he didn’t weigh much.

“Get back to the road. We have to get to camp. We’ll be safe there,” Orion winced.

I couldn’t see how some summer camp for troubled youths was going to fend off a giant hell hound, but it was better than waiting around in the woods for it to kill us. Without a moment to lose, I started the long, arduous hike to Camp Half-Blood.

 


	5. Chapter 5-Allafare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allafare is minding her own business when two new boys arrive at Camp Half Blood in rough shape.

Chapter 5

_ Allafare _

 

I was just trying to get some peace and quiet on Half-Blood Hill. I’m not real big on nature or anything.  It’s just a quiet, unpopulated place, except for the forty-foot ivory statue of Athena and a magic pine tree. Say what you want about Camp Half-Blood, but you can’t say we got boring landmarks. 

So there I was, doing and undoing the same rubik’s cube for the billionth time when something moved in the woods behind me. I knew as long as I stayed on the camp side of the statue and the pine, the camp’s magical force field would keep me safe, but the sound of cracking twigs when you think you’re alone is enough to make anybody nervous. 

“...Hello?” I called. It sounded like some big, dumb animal trying to climb the hill and running into every bush and shrub on the way up. That’s when he came stumbling into sight. 

This kid looked like he’d a bad day (not that I cared). His face was scratched, there was a stray stick in his untidy blonde hair, and the green of his jacket was complimented nicely by the all the dirt, sap, and other woodsy goodness staining it in various places. Strangest of all, he was carrying another person.

He wobbled up to me looking half dead.

“Is this Camp Half-Blood?” he heaved.

“Yeah?” I answered.

“Oh. Good!” He smiled a little. His legs seemed to crumple beneath him, and the kid he dropped on the ground didn’t wake up (or else he was dead. Gross). He glanced up at the huge statue of Athena. “...Train station lady?” he muttered. 

Then he passed out. 

That meant I had two unconscious bodies to deal with when all I wanted to do was play with my rubik’s cube and be left alone. This was way more than I bargained for.

I wasn’t gonna be a lot of help to them on my own. I couldn’t even go into main camp for help because it took me so long to wheel over the untrimmed grass of halfblood hill, and if something was seriously wrong with Thing 1 and Thing 2, they needed help ASAP. That left my least favorite option: call for help. 

“Mr. D? Chiron? Somebody! Hey! There’s some kids up here, somebody help!”

James was first on the scene, followed closely by Kanuha. He took one look at the unconscious boys and was smart enough to know they weren’t taking a nap on the borders of camp for the heck of it. He slung one over each shoulder fireman style. The guy may have been friendly, but nobody had the chance to forget how strong he was. He could seriously mess you up if he wanted to.

Kanuha started down the hill towards the Big House. James grabbed the handles of my chair.

“I can do it!” I snapped. 

She jumped away nervously, bouncing on her toes. People needed to get it through their skulls that I didn’t need their help. I didn’t need anybody’s help. 

Like I said, wheeling through long grass ain’t too easy, but I kept up alright with Kanuha.

“What do we do with them? They’re demigods, right? They gotta be, they came through the boundary with no problem,” I questioned. Kanuha shrugged, almost dropping the shorter kid. 

“That’s all up to Mister D, I guess. We see to their injuries and get them rested up,  _ then _ we can start asking questions,” he said. He climbed the steps of the Big House’s wraparound porch. Like most of camp, it was accessible only to those with full range of movement from the waist down, so I sat at the foot of the stairs instead. 

“What now?” I asked. Usually we only got new campers in the summer. I have to admit, I was a little curious about the new kids.

“You know, I can probably take it from here,” Kanuha smiled. It was that smile I get all the time. That smile that doesn’t say ‘Hi, how are ya,’ it says ‘Oh, you poor little dear.’ It was a stupid fakey sympathy smile, and I hated it. 

“Oh. Oh, of course, my mistake. You don’t want the wheelchair girl around,” I said.

“Ally, that’s not what I--”

“No, no, It’s fine. I get it. Wouldn’t want to run over your foot or something.” I turned my back to his rambled apologies and beat it. 


	6. Chapter 6-Orion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orion wakes up in the Big House with his ankle healed. Alex has some trouble grasping the situation.

Chapter 6

_Orion_

 

When I woke up, I knew something was different right away. I didn’t feel cold or wet or even a little in danger of being mugged. I sat up with a yawn. _Where am I?_ Everything was blurry. _Glasses?_ _Where’d those go?_ I groped around to my left and found the edge of a table. Skimming the top with my hand, I felt the plastic frame of my glasses. _There we go._ I pushed them onto my nose.

First off, I was in a bed. A _real_ bed. It was warmer and comfier than any park bench or train seat. I didn’t want to get up, but I didn’t think I could go back to sleep, so I tried to stand up. A searing pain shot through my leg and I bite back a curse.

Now I remembered. Alex. The hell hound. Falling out of that tree. It was all coming back to me.

I glanced over at the table to my left. A half full juice glass sat next to a little orange sticky note that said “For your ankle, feel better soon!!!” with a little smiley face in black marker.

If you’re not familiar with nectar, it’s literally the drink of the gods. It’ll heal non-mortals and semi-mortals like demigods super duper quick, but only if they drink a little bit at a time. Drinking too much could make you burn up. I don’t mean a fever. Real life flames. Not a good time. The same thing will happen to mortals who drink even a little bit, so my advice is to stay away from the stuff unless you’re really certain you’ve got a godly parent or circumstances like mine.

I sipped the nectar carefully and glanced around the room. It was a guest room or something of the sort, furnished like a bedroom but without all the personal touches a room gets when somebody lives there a long time. To my left, a door led out to a corridor. To my right, another door led to a bathroom. I finished the glass and wiggled the toes on my not-so-broken-anymore ankle. All better. _Good. Can’t stay in bed all day._

Investigating the bathroom, I found a shower stocked with four or five half-empty shampoo and conditioner bottles. Thank the gods too, because I hadn’t had a shower in — well, if you knew how long, you’d probably be grossed out.  I locked the door behind me and hopped in as quickly as I could.

            Afterwards, I got dressed in the bathroom and took a look at myself in the mirror. Bad idea. My clothes weren’t as clean as I was, but I didn’t have anything else to wear.  Even if I had, I would still look like a freak. I stuck my tongue out at my reflection. _Loser._

That was enough of that. Now I was clean and healed, but had no idea where to go from there. I didn’t really want to leave without Alex. We made kind of a good team. I felt a twinge of sadness.   _I can’t stay… if I stay, they’ll find me. I can’t._ Still, I missed having friends. Alex was a real nice guy, even if he did scream a lot.

            I sat on the bed and fiddled with my bracelet the way I always do when I get nervous. No matter how much I messed with it, its silver charms never tarnished. I’d had it forever, but it always fit. I didn’t even have to look at the charms to know them by feel. I knew it was stupid and girly, but I couldn’t get rid of it. It was a gift from a long time ago, with the promise that if I always kept it safe it would always keep me safe. I didn’t know if that was true, but it had become a personal good luck charm. I always kept it tucked in my sleeve, so nobody could see it anyway.

            “Oh good, you’re awake!” I looked up at the voice in the doorway. The boy standing there smiled at me. He was tall, and I mean really, really tall. Everybody looks tall to me, but he was actually properly tall, and built like a quarterback.  Despite that, he had this big goofy grin that made him look like he spent all his spare time volunteering at animal shelters or helpgin old ladies across the street. He had short black hair and copper brown skin.

            “Come on, your friend’s having a bad time adjusting. Maybe a familiar face will help him out a little,” he said, glancing down the hallway. I hopped off the bed and followed him to Alex’s room.

            I heard Alex before I saw him, He definitely sounded like he was “having a bad time adjusting.”

            “Where’s my friend? What’s going on? I want to go home!” I could hear him wail down the hallway. The tall kid led me to a guest room just like mine, except this one was crowded with way more people.

            Alex sat on the bed in the center of the room, hugging his knees tight to his chest. On the other side of the bed there was middle-aged man in a wheelchair with a brown beard and hair that were streaked with grey. He was trying to talk some sense into Alex, but Alex just shook his head anxiously, repeatedly refusing the juice glass on his bedside table, He caught my eye.

            “Orion!” he said, full of distress, “What’s going on? I — I want to go home, I miss my mom, and my cat, and — and — ”

            “And your friends?” I guessed.

            “Well… no, not really,” he admitted. “I don’t understand, why are we here?”

            “I’d be happy to explain, if you’d drink this and calm down,” the man in the wheelchair said patiently.

            “What is that? I’m not drinking anything until I know what it is,” Alex protested shakily.

            “It’s okay,” I promised, “It’ll make you feel better. Go ahead.” He still didn’t look one hundred percent sure about the liquid, but he gave it a hesitant sip. Another thing about nectar? It tastes freaking awesome. Alex downed the rest of the glass in one go.

            I sat next to him on the bed as he took a deep breath.

            “Why are we here?” He asked again. I probably could have answered that, but I decided it was better to take a backseat and let the professionals take the wheel. The man in the wheelchair spoke up.

            “Alex, my name is Chiron. I’m the director of camp activities here at Camp Half-Blood. This is a special camp for people like you.”

            “People like me.” Alex repeated in a dead voice. Chiron seemed to struggle with what he was about to say.

            “How much do you know about Greek mythology?” he asked.

            “Nothing,” Alex despaired, but then his face lit up. “Oh, I saw _Hercules_ once!!”

            “The Disney version?” asked the tall kid. Alex nodded. “Okay, great. So, that’s all real, except Zeus and Hera aren’t happily married, Hercules is kind of a jerk, and people die way more often,” he smiled. Alex looked lost again.

            Chiron winced.

            “The Greek gods––some of which are depicted in, er, ‘ _Hercules_ ,’ are not as fictional as you may believe,” he continued. “Very often, those gods will come to Earth and romance mortal men and women, resulting in half-god, half-human children with superhuman abilities.” He paused. “That’s you.”

            “You think I’m half god,” Alex said doubtingly. “I don’t think so. I’m not even Greek.”

            “There are quite a few common indicators,” Chiron explained. “Common attributes that many demigods share that become increasingly evident as they come of age. Are you dyslexic?”

            “No!” Alex responded.

            “ADHD?” Chiron scratched his beard.

            “I’ve never been tested.”

            “Probably very strong for your age.”

            “I don’t play sports.”

            “A lot of trouble in school?”

            “I only get detention a couple times a week!”

            “Hm. Perhaps we’ve made a mistake. It may be that you’re not a demigod after all. Unless of course… you have an absent parent that you never hear much about?” Chiron had a gleam in his eye like he knew he found a fault in Alex’s denial. Alex was silent.

            “So you’re telling me the reason I’ve never known my father is because he’s really some mystic being like… like Zeus or something? And that’s why I’m such a bad student?” he said finally.

            “To over-simplify, yes. Although, there’s a minor chance your father is Zeus. There are quite a few Olympians and minor gods. Zeus simply gets the most press as king of the gods,” Chiron replies. Alex sat silent for a moment and then shrugged.

            “Well, when in Rome, I guess,” he muttered.

            “Actually, the Roman demigods have a different camp in California,” the tall kid chipped in with a smile. Alex looked ready to faint again. Chiron shook his head at the tall kid, who grinned apologetically.

            “Kanuha, if you’d be so kind as to give our new campers the full orientation, I really must be off,” Chiron said. He stretched his arms and started to stand up out of his chair, except that he didn’t really. His torso grew up away from his human legs and a fully grown horse body stepped out of the wheelchair. It’s probably best that he saved the whole “I’m a centaur” reveal for after the “you’re a demigod” speech, or else Alex might have never recovered. Chiron cantered out of the room, maneuvering with some difficulty through the human-sized door and leaving his wheelchair and faux legs behind.

            Alex just shook his head. “This definitely isn’t military school,” he muttered under his breath.


	7. Chapter 7-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kanuha Lakely gives Alex and Orion a tour of camp. Orion accidentally insults a girl in a wheelchair by assuming that, like Chiron, she's a centaur in disguise.

Chapter 7

_Alex_

 

“I’m Kanuha Lakely, nice to meet you two!” the tall kid beamed, shaking Orion’s hand and then mine with enough force to pull my arm out of its socket. “I’ve been a camper here at Camp Half-Blood for four years,” he said proudly. I noticed a leather string around his neck with four painted beads swinging from it.

“Four beads for four years?” I guessed.

“Uhuh!” Kanuha nodded. “You get a bead painted with the most important event of the summer every year you survive. You guys won’t get your first ones for a long time. We don’t give ‘em out for the fall and winter sessions, since most campers only stay the summer.”

“What if we don’t want to attend camp at all?” I asked quietly. Kanuha’s gaze softened with sympathy.

“Alex, if your mom sent you to camp, it’s probably because it isn’t safe for you to stay at home anymore. Demigods give off a kind of scent that makes it easy for monsters to find us. It isn’t as strong when we’re younger, but once you realize what you are, it’s a lot harder to hide it, especially once you start using cell phones. The signal gives us away,” he explained. My heart dropped into my stomach as I remembered using Mister G’s phone during the power outage. That explained a lot.

But… still. A half god? Me? It didn’t seem likely. The only part that matched up was the way my mom never talked about my dad. I figured he was in prison, or maybe dead, but a _god_? That seemed like a long shot. I wondered how Orion could be staying so calm through all of this. Back in the city, he said he’d heard of Camp Half-Blood. Maybe he knew he had a godly parent?

As soon as I thought of it, Kanuha turned to the two of us.

“We got a call from your mom telling us to expect you, Alex, but we didn’t know there’d be a plus one. What’s your name?” he asked, not unkindly.

“Orion.”

“Orion what?”

“Hunter,” he answered quickly.

“How old are you?” Kanuha asked.

“Twelve,” he answered.

“ _Twelve?_ ” I asked in disbelief. “I thought you were nine!” I admitted. “You sound so young.” Orion looked trapped.

“Uh, I mean, almost twelve. I’m eleven,” he replied. “Twelvish.” Kanuha looked like he didn’t believe him, but he didn’t press the matter any further.

“Alright then, let’s go! I’ll show you all the cabins and cool stuff,” he grinned. “I think you’re gonna like it here.”

_I wouldn’t bet on it,_ I thought to myself.

Kanuha led us out to the porch of what he called the “Big House,” which served as a central camp office/first aid center/other from the sound of it. The house was in fact big, as well as sky blue and fashioned like an old farm house, with two stories and attic. The porch wrapped all the way around it, with steps leading down to an expansive field of strawberries.

“Like I said, there aren’t nearly as many kids here as there are during the summer,” Kanuha explained, “Some kids stay here because they don’t have anywhere else to go. Some kids just fit in better here than at school and in the mortal world. Me, my family can’t afford the flight to and from Hawaii for me to go home every year, so I just stay year round. It’s not so bad, though. You make a lot of friends, and there’s plenty of stuff to keep you busy!” he smiled.

            “You see those strawberry fields over there? When mortals look at this place, all they see is a strawberry farm. The Mist keeps them from seeing it for what it is.”

            “What’s the Mist?” I asked.

            “It’s the magical force that keeps our world hidden from mortals,” Kanuha answered. “You ever see something that didn’t quite add up, and decide maybe it’s your imagination or a trick of the light?” An image of  the golden-haired lady’s fangs flashed through my head. I nodded.“That’s probably the Mist,” Kanuha said. “Some mortals can see through it, but for the most part it helps them cope with sharing a world with monsters and gods. It sort of edits what they see to make more sense to what they know. Sometimes it can work on demigods, too, especially if they don’t know about their heritage yet.”

            Re-entering tour guide mode, he went on to tell us “the fields are also a pet project of the Dionysus kids. You probably don’t know who that is, huh? He’s the god of wine and our head camp counselor.  Also, just call him Mister D. It’s a matter of respect.”

            The more of the camp Kanuha showed us, the less shaky I felt. I almost forgot about going home entirely and felt a twinge of guilt in my gut. Orion didn’t say much, but I knew he was impressed too. It was hard not to be. I had never been to summer camp myself, but I was certain this was no ordinary YMCA daycamp.

            “These are the forges, where we learn to make weapons and shields and stuff. Hi, James!” Kanuha waved at a lanky black girl with her hair shaved on the sides and cut short in a mohawk. She was pounding a sheet of metal flat against an anvil. She waved back without looking up.

            “These are the stables where we do riding lessons and take turns caring for the horses. Pretty neat, huh?” Kanuha beamed. At first glance I thought the horses were just fat, but then one stretched a pair of gorgeous tawny wings from its side and whinnied. _Pegasus_ stables, I realized.

            “Pretty neat,” I agreed.

            “This is the armory. We’ve got bows, arrows, armor, swords, daggers, the whole nine yards. Most of the stuff here is made of Celestial Bronze, but there are a couple other metals that can wound monsters and immortals. Demigods too, so be careful.” Suddenly I remembered mystery sword in my satchel. I blindly groped for the Union Station bag and clasped my fingers around cold metal.

            “Is this Celestial Bronze?” I asked, pulling it out a little too eagerly and almost taking Kanuha’s nose off. Luckily, he ducked.

            “Whoa there, dude! Watch where you’re swinging that. Sure looks like Celestial Bronze. Can I see it?” he asked. I passed the hilt of the sword to him. He turned it over in his hands, admiring the intricate tree branches inlaid in the bronze. I hadn’t noticed them before. I was more worried about not dying at the time. “This is amazing,” he admired. “Where did you get this?”

            “I don’t know, it was just in my bag when I needed it,” I admitted. “Does that sound crazy?” I asked.  Kanuha wasn’t listening.

            “These look like olive branches, and you have grey eyes… I wonder…” he mused, more to himself than us. He shook his head and handed the sword back to me. “Nah. Couldn’t be. You said your mom is your mortal parent, right?”

            “Yeah? What do my eyes have to do with anything?” I replied.

            “Just a coincidence. Come on, there’s more to see!”

            He showed us the forest where campers played capture the flag in the summer, the arena where archery and sword training took place, the beach on Long Island Sound, the rock-climbing wall (“Why do you have lava on a rock-climbing wall?” “Why _wouldn’t_ we have lava on a rock-climbing wall?”), the volleyball court, the arts and crafts area, the amphitheater, the canoe lake, and the dining pavilion.

            The dining pavilion, which sat on top of a hill with a breathtaking view of the sea, wasn’t much of a pavillion at all. There were no walls or roof. Tall marble columns stood at each corner of the smooth white floor, stretching into the sky and hosting currently unlit torches. Two dozen long tables were draped with white, purple-trimmed tablecloths. They all surrounded what looked like an enormous bronze bathtub.

            “Do you eat in the cabins if it rains?” I guessed.

“It hardly ever rains or storms within the camp boundaries, thanks to some help from the big man,” Kanuha said.

“You mean Zeus?”

“Right!”

I grinned. I had at least one god down. How many more could there be? Six, maybe seven?

            We turned the corner around the showers.

            “And these are all the cabins!” Kanuha grinned.

            It was more than seven.

            Twelve big cabins of wildly varying architecture sat in a U- shape around a large central fire pit, and more cabins branched off at either end of the U. The line went further than I could see.

“I’ll go through the Olympians for you guys, but we don’t have time for all the gods and goddesses. With any luck, one of the main twelve will be your parent. Orion, is your godly parent your mom or your dad?” Kanuha asked. Orion tugged at that bracelet thing on his wrist.

“Just go through all of them,” he answered.

Some of the cabins were made of marble, some were made of wood, some were made of materials I couldn’t even recognize. I couldn’t remember all of the cabins, but I did a good job of remembering what Kanuha told us about each of the Olympians.

“Zeus is the god of the sky and king of the gods. We don’t have any Zeus kids right now. We had a son of Zeus and a son of Poseidon here for a while, but they’re both off at college in New Rome now.”

“Hera doesn’t have any demigod children. As the goddess of marriage, she’s sworn to be faithful to Zeus forever, so the only kids she’ll ever have would be with him, and they’d be fully immortal.”

“Poseidon is the god of the sea, storms, and earthquakes. He’s one of the most powerful gods, next to Zeus and Hades.”

“Demeter is the goddess of agriculture and the seasons. This is the first place you want to visit if your houseplant is looking sick.”

“Ares is the god of war.” I remember the Ares cabin because it was downright scary. The walls were covered in chipping red paint, and the roof was lined with barbed wire. The boar’s head mounted above the door seemed to follow us with its eyes. Kanuha puffed out his chest with pride. “This one’s mine.”

“Are you sure?” I asked doubtfully. It was hard to believe that the smiley, friendly guy showing us around spent every night in a cabin that gave me splinters just looking at it. Were there godly paternity tests? Maybe Kanuha should get his DNA checked. But he just nodded and beamed before leading us to the next cabin.

“Athena is the goddess of wisdom and war strategy. If Ares is the brawn, she’s the brains. Athenian kids aren’t conceived in the usual way. It’s said that their conception is the result of a purely intellectual meeting of two incredibly smart minds.” Kanuha sighed. “It’s a little romantic, sort of.”

“The twin archers, Apollo and Artemis. Apollo is the god of a ton of stuff. Basically, if you can’t remember who the god of it is, it’s probably Apollo. But mostly, he deals with the sun, healing, prophecy, music, and archery. His sister, Artemis, is the goddess of the hunt and the moon. Artemis is a virgin goddess, so she doesn’t have any kids, but she does lead a group of immortal huntresses who sometimes visit camp. They stay in this cabin when they do.”

“Can we go inside?” Orion asked tentatively.

“ I don’t think we should…” said Kanuha. “Hey look, it’s Phoebus!” he waved in the direction of the solid gold Apollo cabin. Standing on the doorstep was a red-haired kid of nine or ten years.

“Is that a boy or a girl?” I tried to whisper to Kanuha discreetly. Kanuha just shrugged.

“I guess so,” he answered. “Phoebus is actually from Camp Jupiter, the Roman demigod camp in California. They make trips back and forth between camps to try and decipher the Sibylline books. Sometimes we get prophecies about upcoming threats or quests, right? We used to have an oracle who could interpret the prophecies for us, but a few years ago she lost the gift of prophecy. Now she works together with some of the Roman and Greek Apollo kids to interpret prophecies leftover from ancient literature. Phoebus helps. Say hi,” he urged me, nudging me with his elbow.

“Hi, Phoebus,” I said. Phoebus kind of gave me the creeps. They stared at me with one green eye and one blue eye They didn’t speak, but instead made a series of rapid hand gestures to Kanuha.

“They say they like your sword,” Kanuha translated.

“Is he— are they deaf?” I asked.

“Nope. Hey, say thank you.”

“Thanks, Phoebus.”

Phoebus smiled, then wordlessly disappeared into the cabin.

Kanuha showed us the cabins for Aphrodite (goddess of love) and Hephaestus (god of the forge) before we got to the Hermes cabin. The Hermes cabin looked well-loved, for sure. The steps sagged and the porch was worn with footsteps. Over the doorway there was one of those winged sticks with the snakes on it that you see on hospitals and ambulances.

“Hermes is the messenger of the gods and god of travelers. Unclaimed demigods stay in the Hermes cabin until we find out who their parent is. Gods are supposed to claim their children by the time they turned thirteen, but I’m sure you guys will find a comfortable home here until then. Look, there’s Ally.” Kanuha sounded less excited to see her than he was to see Phoebus.

Ally sat in a wheelchair at the foot of the Hermes cabin steps. She had long black hair barely swept out of her face and russet brown skin. She was solving and unsolving a Rubik’s cube over and over again with record speed and record apathy. I felt like I recognized her somehow… That’s right! She was the girl from Half Blood Hill!

“Hi Ally,” I offered tentatively.

            She grunted in reply.

“Ally, this is Alex and Orion, the new campers. They’re gonna be staying in your cabin until they get claimed. Isn’t that exciting?”

“I can hardly contain myself,” she growled as she filled one side of the cube with alternating blue and red squares.

“So are you a centaur too?” Orion asked out of nowhere. Kanuha’s eyes grew wide and he made a rapid “time-out” symbol with his hands behind Ally’s back, but the damage was already done. The clicking of Ally’s cube abruptly stopped, leaving us in a sudden uncomfortable silence. Kanuha face-palmed in dismay.

“What?” she spat, her gaze snapping to meet Orion’s. He was frozen on the spot. “What did you just say?

“I was just wondering—”

“Wondering what?”

“If you were a—because of—”

“Because of what?” She hissed. Orion looked from me to Kanuha like he couldn’t understand what he’d done wrong.

“...Because of your wheelchair,” he said.

Wrong answer. Ally stared at him for a moment like she was deciding the most painful way to kill him.

“You ever talk to me again and I’m gonna punch your face in so hard it gets stuck in your stomach,” she said finally. She turned and slammed her hand into one of the knotholes on the post of the stairs railing. The stairs seamlessly melded together into a wooden ramp. Ally wheeled into the cabin in a cold rage and slammed the door behind her.

“You know, I think it’s time for lunch,” Kanuha squeaked.

 


	8. Chapter 8-Orion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orion and Alex meet Ryder Davis, the pushy, flirtatious, rude son of Aphrodite over lunch.

Chapter 8

_ Orion _

 

Dining at Camp Half-Blood should have been a super cool experience. I wish I could tell you about all the cabins’ tables, the satyrs, naiads, and dryads, and the magically appearing food and drinks, but I couldn’t appreciate a second of it. All I felt was guilt, guilt, guilt, guilt. At least Alex was impressed.

Even while the twin head counselors were explaining the ritual of food sacrifice to me and Alex, I couldn't help glancing at Ally. She sat as far away from us as she could and made a point not to look at me.. Everybody else at the table wore l orange “Camp Half-Blood” t-shirts, but she wore a flowy black skirt over black leggings and a black long sleeve shirt with her four-beaded camp necklace. She looked like a witch. Not like, all ugly and warty. A pretty witch, but the kind that still had a long list of people she wanted to turn into toads. I felt like I was at the top of it. 

I could tell Alex was hoping a sacrifice would get him claimed by his father. Me, I didn’t even know who to pray to. In the end, I just thanked Hermes for his hospitality. Maybe it was better that I get out of dodge sooner rather than later. 

“Attention campers, we have some new additions to welcome today,” rang a voice from the front of the pavilion. I looked up.  _ That must be Dionysus _ . I’d never seen him myself before, but the stout, red-faced man at the head table wore a leopard-print Hawaiian shirt and was surrounded by satyrs. The leopard is Dionysus’s sacred animal, and he commands the satyrs. Everybody knows that. 

“Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, stand up and tell us a little bit about yourselves, blah blah blah,” he said. Alex stood up hesitantly, tugging me to my feet as well.

“Uh, hi,” he smiled, “I’m Alex. I’m, uh, from Chicago. Yeah. Hi!” Mr. D gave Alex a quick, disinterested glance, but when he met my gaze his eyes narrowed. He gave off this x-ray vision vibe that made me feel a little too closely examined for comfort. 

Alex jabbed me in the ribs with his elbow. 

“I’m Orion. I’m not from Chicago.” I sat back down and hurriedly turned my back on Mr. D’s intense stare. Gradually, chatter and conversation returned to the dining pavilion.  I kept my head down,focused on my food, and wished I could disappear. Then I realized someone else was watching me. 

I looked up from my plate. A boy from another cabin leaned against the end of our table, chewing gum and smirking. He looked like he belonged in a boy band. His hair was a styled mess of caramel and blonde highlights, his jeans were fashionably cut, and he couldn’t take his eyes off of me and Alex. 

I decided I didn’t like him. 

“You’re the new kids,” he grinned, blowing a big, pink bubblegum bubble. 

“We sure are,” Alex smiled. “What’s your name?”

“Ryder Davis,” the boy responded. “You got someone to show you around camp yet?”

“Actually, Kanuha Lakely gave us a pretty great tour this morning, but—”

“Hey numbskull,” Ally interrupted from the other side of the table, “you wanna date that boy or no?”

“Uh… no thank you?” Alex guessed. 

“You heard him, Ryder. Take a hike.” 

“As  _ if _ , Ally.. If he’s in your cabin, he’s probably as annoying as you. He’s not even cute,” Ryder Davis sneered. Alex looked hurt and confused. “ _ You’re  _ pretty cute though,” Ryder added. I realized he had turned his attention to me. I stared straight ahead and scooted my plate and myself away from his end of the table. Ryder leaned further over the table. 

“You want me to show you around the Aphrodite cabin sometime?” He grinned, blowing another bubble.

“No,” I answered flatly. 

“You don’t have to be shy,” he laughed. 

“Not interested.”

“I said take a hike, Ryder. He doesn’t want to talk to you either,” Ally said. 

“Maybe he does and maybe he doesn’t,” Ryder growled. 

“ I don’t,” I interjected. 

“You’re not even supposed to be at this table. Get lost before Mr. D. puts you on dish duty again,” she glowered. 

“Hmph!” Ryder spun on his heel and strutted away, but not before he gave me one last smirk and a wave over his shoulder. Being near him made me feel like I needed to shower again.  

“What was that kid’s deal?” Alex asked Ally. She held her hand up to stop him.

“Having a common enemy does not give you the right to talk to me. Try it again and I’ll knock your lights out,” she replied. Alex scowled. I don’t think he liked her very much. Alex and I spent the rest of the meal in uncomfortable silence while everyone else’s conversations went on around us. Alex started an avid debate with a girl at the Aphrodite table about whether crocheting or knitting was better and forgot about me. After forever, the nymphs started to gather up plates and cups as campers dispersed. 

“We’re going to go to the arts and crafts pavilion. You wanna come?” Alex asked brightly.

“No thanks. I kind of want to be alone for a little bit,” I said.

“Oh.” I could tell he was trying not to look disappointed, and that just made me feel worse. “Well… catch up with you later, then?”

“Yeah. Catch you later.”

Alex walked away with the Aphrodite girl and I headed towards the forest, feeling lower than the underworld. 


	9. Chapter 9-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex gets claimed by his godly parent and discovers something he didn't know about his mortal one.

Chapter 9

_Alex_

           

            After lunch, I headed to the Arts and Crafts pavilion with a girl from Aphrodite cabin named Ruby. She seemed sweet enough, but anybody who prefers knitting over crocheting earns a little distrust in my book (Um, hello? Two needles versus one hook? Obviously the latter is better). I had a lot of fun before all the crocheting reminded me of the cat sweaters I used to make for Bounce. Then a wave of homesickness threw me to the ground. For a minute, I’d forgotten about Chicago altogether. What kind of awful person could leave home behind like that? It wasn’t right.

            Was this really forever? Pegasus stables and magic plates were fun and all, but I couldn’t _live_ here. I belonged in an apartment with a cat and a set of bookshelves. I wasn’t a demigod or some kind of hero-in-training. I just didn’t feel cut from the same cloth as the campers around me. I still felt like the weird kid, just like at school.

            I excused myself to Ruby, who was busy making a purple striped scarf.  She distractedly waved goodbye. I thought I would take a walk to clear my head.

            Without thinking, I ended up pacing down the line of cabins, trying to remember which one belonged to which god. One of them belonged to my father. Knowing that should have made this place feel more like home, but it just made me more unsure of where I really belonged.

            I found my way into the u-shape of Olympian cabins. There were hardly any kids there except for Kanuha. He sat in a fold-out lawn chair by the campfire pit, deep in thought over a heavy book with gold-edged pages.

            “What are you reading?” I asked as I wandered over.

            “Monster encyclopedia,” Kanuha muttered, “never a bad idea to brush up on the basics.”

            “I thought demigods were dyslexic,” I said.

            “Not in ancient Greek, we aren’t,” he replied with a smile. “Take a look.” He handed me his book. For a second the sharp, unfamiliar angles and flourishes didn’t look like letters at all. Then they melted comfortably into words and sentences, falling into place like lyrics to a song from years ago that you still know all the words to.

            _The_ Stymphalian bird is a species of carnivorous avian native to most temperate climates. Though lacking conventionally magical powers, it can shoot its sharp feathers like arrows and possesses an incredibly sharp celestial bronze beak.  Its key weakness is its inability to coordinate under conditions of extreme sonic stress. The most effective attack against the Stymphalian bird is to first confuse it with loud noises, then follow through with one’s weapon of choice.

            “Huh. Neat,” I said, handing back the book. Kanuha laughed.

            “Come on, give it a try! It’s not that hard,” he said.

            “I did,” I said, “I just read it.”

            “How much? A sentence?”

            “About a paragraph. Like you said, it’s not that hard,” I shrugged. Kanuha gave me the same look guidance counselors give kids with “overactive imaginations.”

            “A paragraph,” he repeated.

            “Yeah,” I said, starting to get irritated, “Stymphalian birds. Bronze beaks. Don’t like sound.”

            “Ooooh,” Kanuha nodded, “you mean you _skimmed._ That makes way more sense.” Now that hit a nerve. Kanuha was super nice and all, but books are kind of my wheelhouse. I get a little touchy about things like “skimming.”

            “I did not! I don’t skim! I’ll prove it,” I insisted, snatching the book out of his hands and taking a seat on the ground next to his chair.

            I plunged into the pages. The rest of the chapter was about something called an _empousa_ , a vampire-like creature that appeared as a beautiful woman but which had one bronze leg and one donkey leg. Apparently they used that form to seduce their prey (usually young men) and suck their blood. I was reminded of the woman on the train.

            Kanuha gave a grunt of irritation. “You’re not even reading, you’re just flipping through the pages,” he complained. Now that got me heated.

            “No I’m not! I read the rest of the chapter. _Empousa_ , plural, _empousai_ , they respond to the control of the goddess Hecate and are vulnerable to most weapons cast in celestial bronze, imperial gold, stygian iron, and other divine alloys, their true form bears flaming hair, fangs, one prosthetic leg and one mammalian leg, they—”

            “Whoa, how’d you do that?” Kanuha interrupted, wide-eyed.

            “It’s not that hard. I’m a really good reader. I guess ancient Greek isn’t that different,” I said.

            “No no no no, how’d you do that that fast?” he asked.

            “What, in a couple minutes? There weren’t that many pages left,” I said. Kanuha laughed.

            “A couple _minutes?_ Are you for real?” I must have looked confused, because Kanuha pushed the book towards me again. “Hey, read another chapter.”

            “Which one?” I questioned.

            “Doesn’t matter. Pick a random one. Take all the time you need.”

            I flipped the pages to one chapter headed in big, fancy, ancient Greek lettering. My mind processed it as UNNATURAL CARNIVORES. It was twenty or thirty pages long and detailed a wide range of man-made monstrosities like the minotaur and carnivorous horses that otherwise could have been peaceful, herbivorous creatures without the interference of men. Fascinating, sad stuff, really. When I finished, I snapped the book closed and glanced up. Kanuha stared at me. Had he been watching me read the entire time…?

            “You read all that?” he asked.

            “Sure, it wasn’t too long. You’re acting kind of weird, Kanuha. What’s up?” Kanuha didn’t answer. Instead he sat up in his lawn chair and glanced wildly about the half-ring of cabins, clearly searching for somebody.

            “Hey, Kansas! come over here!” he called to a boy about to enter the Hermes cabin.

            “Yeah, what?” he asked, looking me over like he was trying to tell which pocket I used to store my valuables.

            “Check out how fast Alex can read!” Kanuha grinned.

            “Oh, is that all this is about?” I questioned. “Gosh, that’s nothing impressive. I’ve always had a pretty high words-per-minute count, it’s nothing all that—”

            “Yeah yeah yeah, whatever, just look,” Kanuha said. He picked the Monster Encyclopedia off the ground and cracked it open to a random spot. “Ready, set, go!” He flashed the pages at me. A second later he snapped it shut. “What did you just read?” he asked.

            “ _Cyclopes are an especially tricky race to encounter due to their widely varying loyalties. While some willingly serve at the forges of the gods, creating infamous weapons such as Zeus’ lightning bolts, others are less friendly and are known to devour mortals, demigods, nymphs, satyrs, and even minor goddesses in a pinch,_ ” I recited.  Kanuha practically vibrated.

            “Isn’t that COOL?” he gushed.

            “Huh. Pretty cool. Let me try!” said the Hermes boy (I later learned that his name was Jack Kansas). “Be right back!”He scampered across the green to the Hermes cabin and emerged with a book titled “History’s Greatest Tricksters” in Greek. A few curious cabin mates followed him out.

            “You got two minutes to read as much as you can,” he said, tossing the book into my lap, “Ready, set, go!”

            “STOP!” he cried.

            “I already finished,” I shrugged, “it was good.”

            “Sure you did. Prove it.”

            I briefly summarized the stories in Jack’s book: how Hermes stole Apollo’s cattle, how Prometheus stole fire for humans, how Eris’s golden apple lead to the Trojan war. Boy, it sure seemed like gods and goddesses got into a lot of trouble.

“That was  106 pages long!” Jack gaped. By then, a couple campers had gathered around, wondering what the fuss was about.

            “Alex can read Greek crazy fast,” Kanuha beamed, “like, superhuman fast.”

            Before I knew it, Kanuha had ushered me into his lawn chair and campers kept running off to their cabins to get books for me to read, quizzing me on them afterwards to prove I read them One kid had a stopwatch out to time me. I think I saw a girl from Hermes Cabin taking bets. I read chapters in seconds, books in minutes, and each time I snapped a book shut the crowd buzzed with excitement. I never knew being a bookworm could be so popular.

            “Alright, let’s see him read this,” declared a tall, blonde boy with hair a little bit like mine. He dropped an enormous leather-bound brick into my lap.

            “What is it?” I questioned. The cover was so water damaged and mottled that I couldn’t make out the title.

            “ _The Illiad_ and _the Odyssey_. Original copies. Unabridged. It’s the oldest book in Athena Cabin’s library, and the biggest. You’re lucky if you can read it in under a week, let alone in the rest of the rec hour. Think you can handle it?” he raised an eyebrow.

            “Aw, Malcolm, that’s not fair,” chirped a short black girl. “Everybody knows the Odyssey, it’s Greek Mythology 101. He’d probably just recite it from memory..”

Kanuha cleared his throat.

            “Uh, trust me, he really doesn’t know anything about Greek mythology. Like, at all. No offense, Alex,” he apologized.

            “I saw _Hercules_ once,” I protested weakly. “I know Zeus is the big one.”

            “See? No problem,” Malcolm said, “let him show us what he’s got.”

            I flipped open the cover of the book and the crowd of campers fell silent. The text of the book was miniscule, and the ink was smeared and spotted from millennia of use. Even so, my mind took to the letters with remarkable ease. I realized this book was my favorite kind: the kind with adventures and danger and heroes and magic. Basically ancient _Harry Potter_. Awesome.

            The story swept over me and sunk into my brain. Maybe I was turning pages, but I didn’t notice. Maybe I was reading words, but all I saw were pictures, of battles and monsters and ships across the sea. I think one or two campers got up and wandered away. I wondered how long I’d been reading.

            Finally, Odysseus was returned to his rightful place as king and peace was restored. I clapped the book shut.

            “What was my time?” I smiled. Malcolm stared at me slack-jawed. We must have been sitting there a long time. I thought I saw the red light of the sunset washing over the faces of the other campers. Except it didn’t seem to be washing over anything else. And it seemed to be coming from right above my head. And Malcolm wasn’t staring at me, he was staring over me.

            “Wh-what? What is it?” I glanced up. Directly above there shimmered the image of a glowing red owl, painted into the air as if with fire. It looked just like the one on my sword.  “Is that bad?” I stuttered nervously.

            “Alex, I thought you said your _dad_ was your godly parent,” Kanuha mused.

            “He is! He’s gotta be, right? I have a mortal mom,” I said.

            “Think again, kiddo,” Malcolm spoke up. He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “That right there is the Mark of Athena, and that means she’s claiming you as her son.” Suddenly the silence broke and everybody clammered at once.

            “Congratulations! Hardly anybody gets claimed on their first day!”

            “I knew it, just look at his grey eyes, anybody in their right mind could have guessed—”

            “—he’s smart too, how cool!”

            “Wait—um, excuse me, can I —hey, wait—WAIT!” I shouted. “I can’t be a son of Athena! I have a mother, a _mortal_ mother. I have to have a godly father, right? _Right_?” I panicked, turning to Malcolm and Kanuha for answers. Malcolm shifted awkwardly.

            “Uh, y’see Alex, Athenian kids aren’t made in the, er, _usual_ way. There’s some magic godly brain stuff that goes on and then, well, we happen,” he explained uncomfortably. I just stared at him.

            “But––but I have a mom,” I struggled, drawing a blank.

            “I’ve never seen it happen before, but I suppose it’s entirely possible,” Malcolm shrugged.

            “Seen… happen? I already have a, I,” I stuttered.

            “Your mom likes girls!” Kanuha interjected. “C’mon, everybody, it’s time for dinner.” he got up and strode away. Most of the kids dispersed back to their cabins.

            And that’s the story of how I learned after twelve years that my mom was a lesbian.

 


	10. Chapter 10-Allafare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orion tries to make amends with Allafare.

Chapter 10

_Allafare_

 

            After lunch, I thought about hanging out on Half Blood Hill again, but the trip was uphill through long grass, and that little scrape with the new kid left me feeling drained. Not that I cared what he thought about me. I was just exhausted from thinking of all the ways I’d break his neck if he worked his stupid jaw around me again.

            I’m not a people person.

            There’s a nice little spot on the edge of the north woods that looks out over the fireworks beach and Long Island Sound. In the summer, there’s always campers around there gearing up for capture the flag, but now, in November, it was quiet.

            I fumbled with my Rubik’s cube, but it wasn’t fun anymore. It hadn’t been fun for a couple of months, but at least it was something to do.

            _I could go to the arena or something. I bet loads of people go just to watch._ I pushed the thought away. That would be pathetic. I hated being the target of everyone’s sympathy. It was better if I just stayed away from people altogether.

            I heard the crack of a stick in the forest to my left. Right away those good old-fashioned demigod instincts kicked in. All in one motion, I swiveled my chair to face the forest, wound up for one hell of a speedball, and pitched my Rubik’s cube in the direction of the sound. It hit the last person I wanted to see.

            “Ow…” Orion rubbed his shoulder and winced.

            “You gotta be kidding me!” I cried in disbelief.

            “You hit me in the shoulder,” he whined, “That was really hard.”

            “Are you _spying_ on me or something, you creep?”

            “What? No, I was just going for a walk—”

            “Who goes for a walk alone in a monster-infested forest???” I demanded.

            “Isn’t that what you’re doing?”

            I couldn’t think of a response. Orion rubbed his shoulder awkwardly.

            “I wasn’t making fun of your chair,” he said finally, breaking the silence. “I’ve never met anybody in a wheelchair who wasn’t a centaur. I didn’t mean anything by it. I was a jerk.”

            “I believe you,” I decided.

            “You do?”

            “Yeah. You are a jerk.”

            He hung his head in shame.

            “Whoa,” I said, “Lighten up, dude. I’m joking. Don’t worry about it.”

            He scooped my Rubik’s cube off the ground and tried to hand it back to me.

            “Keep it,” I shrugged, “I hate that stupid thing.”

            “Then why do you carry it around?”

            “It’s something to do,” I shrugged.

            “But there’s tons of stuff to do here,” he said, eyes wide. I rolled my eyes.

            “Yeah, loads of stuff. Why don’t we just go over to the rock climbing wall? Or the volleyball court? Or go dancing? Or run a marathon? You see my dilemma?”

            “There’s still stuff you could do. You could still go pegasus riding, or canoeing, probably even weapons training. You’d be a great archer. You’ve got real good aim.,” he added, rubbing his shoulder again.

            “Thanks. Little League, three years. I don’t wanna do any of that stuff. I’d need somebody’s help, and I don’t like sympathy. Or people,” I said. Orion gave me a look of disbelief.

            “Oh. Guess I better leave you alone then.” He turned on his heel and shoved his hands into the pockets of his big, grey coat. _At least now I’ll have some peace and quiet. Good riddance._

“You don’t _have_ to leave. I guess you’re not one hundred percent on my nerves,” I admitted begrudgingly. He turned back in mid stride with a smile. What a jerk. “I don’t want you to stay or anything. You can if you want, is all. Just keep it down so I can pretend you aren’t here, alright?”

            He sat down in silence in the grass next to me. That silence lasted about twenty seconds.

            “So is Ally short for Allison, or Allana, or—”

            “Shush.”

He nodded hastily, making a zip-the-and-lip-throw-away-the-key motion with his hand. He started pulling up handfuls of grass and sprinkling the blades over his torn, stained jeans. Something told me he was the kind of kid who got marked down for not sitting still in class.

            “Allafare,” I answered.

            “Allafare what?”

            “Winsover.”

            “Allafare Winsover. That’s a real nice name. Sounds musical.”

            “Whatever, weirdo.”

            He was quiet for another thirty seconds.

            “Wanna play twenty questions?”

            “Oh my god.”

            “Right. Quiet. Sorry. Nevermind,” he apologized.

            “...Fine,” I agreed. “You go first.”

            “What’s your favorite color?” He asked.

            “Black.”

            “I coulda guessed that.”

We walked down to the beach and along its shore. Orion tossed rocks and sticks into the water as we asked easy questions that turned harder the longer we talked.

            “Where you from? Don’t say ‘Not Chicago’. That doesn’t count,” I added. I thought it was an easy question, but he fidgeted uncomfortably.

            “I travel a lot.”

            “But where’s your home? Like, your house?”

            “Don’t have one.”

            “What, a house? Or a home?”

            “Neither anymore,” he replied, chucking a huge rock into the shallows with a loud _SPLUNK!_

            “Did you run away or something? Got a couple of runaways here. That’s not that weird,” I promised. He handed me a pinkish rock. I delivered a perfect curveball into the sea. The crowd went wild.

            “You don’t have any runaways like me,” he said quietly.

            “So you ran away?”

            “Oh yeah. Twice.” Orion crossed his arms. “Wait a minute. That was two questions, it’s my turn.”

            “But you didn’t answer the first one! Where did you used to live? The first time?

            “Oregon. That was forever ago, I don’t even remember much about it now.” _KER-SPLOOSH!_ Another stone sank into the sea.

“Why’d you leave?”

            “I hated it there. My mom was crazy, always telling my I was born out of wedlock and a sinner or whatever.,I was just too punk rock for her,” he flexed one arm (I think. The bulky jacket made it hard to tell. Either way, I held back a snort of laughter).

            “Anyway, one day I couldn’t take it anymore, so I left,” he finished.

            “Man. That must have been hard,” I said. Orion shook his head.

            “Nah. Leaving all that behind was the best thing I ever did. It’s leaving behind the people who actually care about you that’s hard.”

            “...You mean like your second home?” I guessed.

            “Come on, Allafare. It’s my turn.” He picked up a stick of driftwood and broke it into twigs that floated off into the water.

            “Alright. Shoot.”

            “You ever wonder what it’s like to walk?”

            “I know what it’s like to walk, you idiot. I’ve only been in a chair for two years.”

            “Oh.” He shifted uncomfortably, tugging at something on his wrist. “I just thought— sorry.”

            “Whatever. Most people think I was born like this, except Kanuha and a few others that have been here a while. First two years of camp, I walked to my cabin.”

            “What happened? Is it like, from a giant monster? Or a training exercise?”

            “Oh, yeah. I was actually on this quest, right? This big quest to go save Olympus from the forces of darkness, and we were in the final battle against the bad guys, and one of my questmates was about to get stabbed in the back by this giant cyclops, so I was all, ‘oh no you don’t,’ and I punched the sword out of its hand and drop-kicked it to the edge of the roof, ‘cause we were on the roof by the way, and I like, ninja punched it off the roof, but it grabbed my arm and pulled me with it, and we were five stories up, and I used its body to break my fall and the impact blasted it to dust, but I paralyzed myself from the waist down.”

            “Wow, really?” he asked, wide-eyed.

            “No. Got T-boned in a taxi on the way home to see my mom for Christmas.”

            “Oh.” _SPLASH!_ “That sucks.”

            “It sucks a ton. They said I’m lucky to be alive. It’s easy to tell other people they’re lucky when you’re not the one that has to be 50% furniture.” We watched the ripples of the last rock spread over the water. “If I could have just one thing,” I said quietly, “one magic wish, I’d wish I could do things for myself again,” I said quietly. Orion didn’t say anything. That was the perfect thing to say.

            “Is the rest of that story true? About the quest?” he asked after a long time.

            “No. I ain’t never been on a quest. Guess I won’t never, neither.” _Not that I’m bitter,_ I thought bitterly.  “Nobody ever asks about my chair,” I went on. “Everyone acts like I’m some kind of time bomb. That’s the only reason I thought you were making fun of me earlier. Usually it’s all ‘Shh! Nobody talk about it! She might not realize her legs don’t work!’ I wish everybody would cool it. I hate it that people are so fakey-nice and sympathetic. Like, I would rather have somebody genuinely hate me than only be nice to me because of my chair, you know?”

            “Maybe they’re being real nice and you just can’t tell,” he suggested. “The other Hermes kids don’t seem to mind you.”

            “That’s because we’re siblings. Hey, maybe that’s why I can stand you. Maybe you’re my brother,” I laughed. Orion look shocked.

            “Huh?”

            “Your dad’s your godly parent, right? Your mom’s from Oregon?”

            “Uh…. right. Yeah.” He fidgeted. “Are you going to the campfire tonight?” he changed the subject.

            “No way,” I scoffed.

            “Why not?”

            “Three reasons. One, people don’t like me.”

“I like you—”

“—Two, I don’t like people.”

“You like me.”

“No I don’t. Three, my idea of a good time isn’t sitting directly in the path of wood smoke while the head counselors of the Hades and Apollo cabins pretend nobody can see them holding hands and Mr. D wishes he were back on Olympus. So, no. Plus I don’t do the whole campfire song gig.”

“There’s _campfire songs?_ ”

“Yeah. The epitome of lame. I usually smuggle some food from dinner back into the cabin and get an extra hour of sleep. Aw man... It’s getting pretty late, we might actually miss dinner,” I said. Orion’s eyes went wide.

“ _Miss dinner?_ No way. We’d better run.”

“...You’re joking, right?”

“Don’t worry, I got you!” Orion made a grab for the handles of my chair.

“Hey, don’t touch that! I don’t need your—!” With a massive shove, Orion started my chair forward at breakneck speed (a broken neck was so the last thing I needed right now). No seatbelt, no breaks, and no reasoning with Orion, I dug my fingers  into the foam grips of the armrests as he ran faster and faster behind my chair.

_Gods help me._


	11. Chapter 11-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orion makes sure he and Allafare don't miss dinner. Alex has his first meal with his new cabin.

Chapter 11

_Alex_

 

            I followed Malcolm up the hill to the dining pavilion. We must have been ahead of schedule; the cabins hadn’t started lining up yet. Kanuha tapped me on the shoulder before he went to meet his cabin.

            “Here,” he said, “you can borrow my encyclopedia. You’re gonna have a bad time if you base all your knowledge of the gods off a Disney movie.”

            “The movies never get it right,” Malcolm muttered grimly, shaking his head.

            “Wow… thanks, Kanuha. I’ll get it back to you when I’m done,” I promised.

            The view over Long Island Sound was just as beautiful as it was at lunch. The sun sat low over the horizon and threw sparkling orange fire on the water. The wind that blew in off the water smelled like sea air and strawberries. The air was filled with the sound of light chatter and screaming.

            ...Screaming?

            Confused campers glanced about for the source of the shrieks. As it grew louder, I realized the sound came from Ally as Orion pushed her chair up the grass slope of the pavilion at top speed. Orion came to a skidding halt at the top.

            “See? Told you we’d make it,” he said simply, tugging his hat down over his hair. Ally looked like she was locked in the hanging-on-for-dear-life position. As started to walk over to me,  Ally snapped.

            “What are you, some flavor of STUPID, DON’T YOU walk away from me when I’m yelling at you pretty boy, how about I RUN OVER YOUR FRIGGIN’ TOES, THEN WE’LL SEE HOW FANCY YOU CAN RUN? I SWEAR TO GODS, YOU BETTER—”

            “How was your rec hour?” Orion asked calmly over Ally’s various camp-inappropriate threats.

            “Uh… great! I got claimed! Also, I found out my mom is gay,” I noted.

            “Oh. That’s cool,” he said.

            “Yeah, I guess I should have seen that coming… she always said she had a crush on Julie Andrews,” I admitted.

            “Doesn’t everybody?” Orion screwed up his face in confusion. I shrugged.

            “Aw man, I guess we can’t sit together anymore. I have to sit with the Athena cabin,” I fretted.

            “That’s alright. We can sit together at the campfire tonight, right?” he offered.

            “Yeah. I feel worse for you, though. You gotta sit with _her,_ ” I whispered with a subtle tip of my head towards Ally.

            “—YOU EVER WANNA SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN YOU CRAZY SON OF A—”

            “She’s not so bad,” Orion said.

            “Hey, maybe you’ll get claimed next!” I grinned.  “Maybe we’ll both be sons of Athena!”

            “Uh… haha, yeah, maybe,” he tugged at his wrist. “ I think dinner’s starting, so I’m gonna go. See you later, yeah?” Before I could answer, he was gone.

            I followed Malcolm to a table of other campers and my breath caught in my throat. The kids seated on either side of the table had light skin, dark skin, long hair, short hair, mostly blonde hair, round faces, square faces, and a dozen other differences, but they all had stormy grey eyes just like mine. It was like looking in eight mirrors at once.

            A short girl with a braid over one shoulder smiled at me. “Welcome to the family!” she beamed. Malcolm punched me good-naturedly in the shoulder.

            “Our little brother here read _The Iliad_ and _The Odyssey_ in eleven minutes and forty-five seconds,” he boasted.

            “That’s so cool! Wait until you see our cabin’s library,” said a boy about my age.

            “You have a _library?_ ” I gasped, “ _In_ the cabin?”

            “Sure do. And desks, a workshop, just about anything you could need. Oh, and beds, too.. You’ll feel right at home.”

            _Home._ I felt a twinge in my chest. I felt like I belonged here. Like I had a family. But I already had a family. I couldn’t just leave mom and Bounce behind...

            As we went up to make our offerings, I decided to push the thought out of my mind for now.

            After dinner, we headed back to our cabins to clean up and get ready for that night’s campfire. Orion gave me a sad little wave as we headed to opposite sides of the U of Olympian cabins, but at least we were still practically neighbors.

            By the time I picked a bunk, set my stuff on a shelf, and helped tidy up (not that that was much of a chore —these people were neat freaks), the sky had gone dark and it was time for the fire.

 


	12. Chapter 12-Orion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryder makes a grab at popularity by volunteering to be Orion's camp training buddy at the campfire singalong, but Orion is less than fond of the idea.

Chapter 12

_Orion_

 

            There was already a roaring fire in the fire pit by the time campers started emerging from their cabins. I think Ally had forgiven me, or at least decided not to skin me alive. She let me pick the bunk above hers to stay in.

            _But I won’t be staying for long._

            She complained pretty hard about going to the camp fire. I guess she was serious about not being a people person. I didn’t get that. I loved being around people. I missed being around people. It sucks to be on your own.

            The campfire flames threw golden orange light on the faces of the campers seated around it. Chiron and Mr. D were there, too.

            Ally and I took a seat with the rest of Hermes Cabin near the flames. Well… I took a seat. Ally was pretty much set in that department. I saw Alex come out of his cabin and waved at him, hoping he’d see me in the dark. He did. I patted the ground next to me. He walked over and sat down, but he didn’t look too happy about sitting so close to Ally. She ignored him.

            Mr. D. cleared his throat. “Just a few evening announcements before we get started with the Apollo Cabin Singalong, which I know you’re all just dying to begin. I know I am.” He looked sick.  “Let’s have our new campers stand up.” Alex and I got to our feet. “As some of you may know, one of our new campers was claimed today—” scattered cheers and whistles from the Athena kids. “—Yes, we’re all very excited, welcome to your new home, etcetera etcetera. However, since our _other_ new camper has been temporarily placed in Hermes cabin and has only received a cursory tour of camp, he will need a training buddy until he’s been claimed. I’ll be taking volunteers since cabin eleven is unfit for this duty.”

            An uproar of protest erupted from behind us.

            “Unfit? Since when?” shouted a boy sitting behind Ally.

            “Since you convinced the last new camper that the camp store policy was ‘if you can get away with it, it’s not shoplifting,’” replied Chiron.

            “Is… Is that not the real policy?” I heard James fret from nearby.

            “This is cabin profiling, yo. It’s unfair!” Ally shouted.

            “Fairs are for tourists,” said Mr. D. “Any volunteers to assist this young man?” I got the feeling that Mr. D was x-raying me again. I wanted to sink back into the shadows, but even then I felt like he could see me. I wanted to disappear.

            “I’ll do it.” Ryder sprang to his feet on the other side of the fire pit. “Why, Mr. D, it would be my honor.” He gave me a boy-band-glamor-shot smolder. Barf.

            “Okay, sure, whatever kid. Just don’t mess it up,” Mr. D muttered, taking a swig of Diet Coke. Ryder sashayed towards me.

            “Don’t you worry about a thing. I’m sure we’ll be the best of friends.” He grabbed me by the shoulders. I seized up. Now, I’d been taught that the proper response to non-consensual touching wa _Any man who lays a hand on me will taste death,_ but somehow I didn’t think that would make me popular with the other campers. Instead, I chuckled nervously.

            “I-I don’t really like to be touched,” I stuttered, removing his arm from my shoulders as politely as I could. Ryder ignored me.

            “I’ll teach you everything you need to know,” he said, clamping his arm back around me and pulling me close to his side.

            “I _don’t_ like to be _touched_ ,” I tried again, wiggling out of his grip with some difficulty.

            “Stick with me and you’ll go far, kid,” he grinned, yanking me to his side again.

            “Pleasestoptouchingme” I pulled away. Me heart beat in my chest like a hunted rabbit’s.

            “I’m sure we’ll be very, _very_ close,” Ryder said. Then… well, it all happened so fast.

            Ryder grabbed me again, but not by the shoulders. Too close to my waist. Too close for comfort. I’m not entirely sure what happened next. It was all just reflex. I think I dropped to one knee and kicked Ryder’s legs out from under him. The next thing I knew, he had collapsed to the ground and I was standing over him.

            There were too many people watching me. Too many people saw what I did. For a second it was silent except for the crackle of the fire. Then Ally snickered.

            “S—Sorry,” I sputtered.  I offered Ryder a hand. He snarled at me and slapped it away.

            “Freak,” he breathed.  

            “I  didn’t mean— it was an accident,” I pleaded. Alex gently grabbed my elbow and guided me back to our spots.

            “Aw man, that was awesome!” Ally chuckled, offering me a fist bump. I didn’t pound it. I caught a glimpse of Mr. D. across the circle squinting or glaring at me. I couldn’t tell which. I pulled my hat down, stared at the ground, and didn’t sing along when the campfire songs started.

            _The sooner I get out of here, the better._

 


	13. Chapter 13-Allafare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allafare has an unsettling encounter with the Davis twins, Alex continues his training with his head counselor, and Orion uses Ryder for target practice.

Chapter 13

_Allafare_

 

            Orion must have snuck off sometime before the end of the campfire, because by the time everybody else got up to leave, he was already gone. Poor guy. He seemed downright miserable. I didn’t see why, though. Frankly I’d been itching to send Ryder sprawling to the ground since the day he arrived at camp. As far as I was concerned, Orion deserved a medal. Or at least a hi-five.

            I wasn’t keen to participate in Hermes Cabin’s traditional before-bed gossip session, so I decided to hit the water fountain by the showers before I headed to bed. Maybe by then the fuss would have died down. Once I got to the fountain, though, I realized I would have had less trouble if I stayed in bed.

            “I’ll show him, that rotten little— made me look so stupid,” Ryder spat through gritted teeth, storming out of the bathroom.

            “Ryder, please, you need to calm down,” Ruby begged. I hadn’t noticed her anxiously lingering near the bathroom door. “You know you make bad choices when you get like this—”

            “—made me look like and IDIOT, Ruby, he has to pay,” Ryder punched the door frame.

            “Don’t, Ryder. Just let it go, he said he was sorry, you don’t have to prove anything to anybody, okay? Just let it go,” she pleaded desperately. Ryder turned away from her in disgust. That’s when he noticed me watching the whole exchange.

            “Hey, you!” he shouted, stomping up to me. “You tell your little boyfriend to watch his back, because I’m coming for him,” he growled. “I’m a winner, and he made me look like a loser. Pretty soon it’s gonna be time to settle the score.”  I gave a snort.

            “Sure, I’ll tell him. What are you gonna do, drown him in hair spray? That’ll show him,” I sneered. Ryder violently kicked the front wheel of my chair. A jolt of fear shot through my chest as my chair tipped backwards. I quickly leaned forward to rebalance myself, but even so,  I was alone, unarmed, and disabled in a dark, secluded area. I’m from NYC. I knew how this would play out. But I’m also from Cabin 11, and in Cabin 11 we know how to bluff.

            I raised one unimpressed eyebrow and stuck out my chin, meeting Ryder’s furious gaze. You never let the fear show.

            “Ryder, that’s enough,” Ruby said, tugging at his elbow. There was a touch of steel in her voice that told me Ryder wouldn’t argue. “We’re going now,” she said. Finally he gave my chair one last half-hearted shove and turned away with a huff, stomping off towards the cabins. Ruby gave me an apologetic glance over her shoulder and followed after him.

            When I got back the the cabin, nearly everyone was in bed. Orion was sulking in the bunk above mine. His ears were plugged with a pair of white earbuds connected to an orange iPod.

            “Hey. Don’t let that guy get you down, Orion. Trust me, you did us all a favor,” I promised him.

            “Yeah, Ryder Davis is the biggest jerk at Camp Half Blood, I oughta know,” Jack Kansas agreed as he punched his pillow into shape. “I’m glad somebody got the chance to knock him over, even if it wasn’t me. Sucks that he’s here all year.”

            “See?” I said, “No worries. Get some sleep.”

            Orion didn’t answer. He curled up in a sad, giant-coated ball facing the wall. He didn’t say anything as I changed into my pajamas and transferred from my chair to my bunk, which can take a while on my own.

            “Maybe tomorrow’s campfire will be better,” I offered.

            Orion didn’t answer this time either, but his even breathing told me he had drifted off to sleep.

 

* * *

 

            “What’s wrong with your knuckles?” I asked Orion over lunch the next day. He had three or four Band-Aids plastered over them and was holding them against the cool surface of his juice cup.

            “Oh, um… morning training didn’t go as well as I thought it would. I guess I’m not too handy with a sword,” he fretted into his sandwich. Stupid blonde Chicago boy paused while passing our table.

“That’s not fair,” he noted, “Ryder gave you a way unbalanced sword.”

“He wouldn’t do that… he said there weren’t any hard feelings,” Orion said.

I cleared my throat pointedly and glared at the blonde one. “Uh, this is a Hermes Cabin conversation we’re having a conversation here? Go on, scram, go sit with the other nerds. Shoo,” I said. Alex screwed up his face and moved along. Good riddance.

“Don’t be so mean to Alex,” Orion muttered around a bite of sandwich.

“Why not?” I answered. Orion just chewed.

“I’m no good at fencing… Ryder said I should have blocked him,” he complained as he rubbed at the cuts on his knuckles. From where I was sitting, they looked too deep for Band-Aids. “It wouldn’t be so bad if it were archery… I’m good at shooting. Really good,” he mused more to himself than me. Just then, the devil himself passed our table.

“Yeah, well,” I said as loudly and casually as I could, “That’s not so bad. At least it’s not archery, right? You suck at archery, and I mean _suck_ ,” I emphasized. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ryder pause. Orion squinted in confusion.

“What? No I don’t, I just told you—”

“So it could be worse! At least it’s only fencing, right buddy? You’ll muddle through it as long as you stay away from any target practice, amiright? Hey, did you see the game last night?” I asked. Ryder smirked and slinked away.

After lunch, Alex and Orion headed to the arena to meet Malcolm and Ryder for training, and I went with them. When I got there (surprise, surprise) somebody had set up archery targets. Ryder grinned evilly. I sat off to the side and watched the whole show go down.  Malcolm waved at Alex excitedly.

“Hey, Alex! Ryder was just suggesting we try something a little different with you guys this afternoon. It’s all fine and well to be an excellent swordsman (like yours truly), but good demigods are well-rounded. Here, I’ll teach you how to string a bow.” He smiled and took Ale aside.

Ryder grinned evilly. “Now Orion,” he started with a disgusting air of authority that nobody should be allowed to sport at only thirteen years old, “I’m only an intermediate archer, but… let’s see if you can manage to get to that level, shall we?” he simpered. “Should I help you pick out a bow?”

“I got one,” Orion said simply. He knelt on the dirt floor of the arena with a silver bow that I could have sworn he didn’t have at lunch and set about stringing it.

As Alex practiced stringing and unstringing a practice bow from the armory, Ryder leaned against a column next to Malcolm (who looked none too pleased about sharing the Arena with him).

“I’m worried about him,” he sighed to Malcolm, loudly enough to be heard from the other end of the arena. “He just doesn’t know how to do anything right,” he pouted, mock sympathy dripping from his voice. Orion finished stringing his bow and pretended to ignore Ryder.

“He can’t swordfight, can’t shoot, can’t even act like a normal human being. It’s like he isn’t even a demigod,” Ryder continued loudly. “Maybe there’s been some horrible mistake. Of course, that would explain why he hasn’t been claimed yet. Then again, with a son like that, what would you expect?” Orion aimed an arrow at one of the targets and set his jaw. His knuckles turned white with the tightness of his grip. “I certainly know I wouldn’t want to admit to parenting such a failure,” Ryder stage-whispered, making sure that Orion could hear him.

As they say, it hit the fan.

Orion turned on his heel in a flash and aimed directly at Ryder. _TWANG! TWANG! TWANG! TWANG!_ Faster than I could follow, Orion fired arrows from an unseen quiver in a fury of silver flashes. I winced, afraid to look at whatever was left of Ryder. _This is gonna be messy,_ I thought.

Finally, when I couldn’t stand the silence anymore, I peeked. There stood Ryder, completely slack-jawed and surprisingly alive. Silver-tipped arrows pierced Ryder’s clothes at the shoulders and knees, wedged harmlessly through the cloth into the rock of the arena column, pinning Ryder helplessly to the stone.

“Wh—what the—” he stuttered in awe. For one shining moment, Orion’s face was awash with victory.

Then Chiron cantered into the arena.

He took one look at the scene before him: Orion still had his bow aimed at Ryder The Human Pin Cushion. Chiron’s face was unreadable. “Mr. D. has requested your presence,” he said gravely. Orion turned white. Chiron lead him out of the arena like he was leading him to the electric chair.

Malcolm tried ineffectively to refocus Alex on training. Ryder tried ineffectively to free himself from the wall.

“I hope they expel that little freak,” he growled.

“How about you can it before we play pin-the-arrow-on-the-boyband again?” I suggested.

Much as I hate to admit it, I think Alex and I were thinking the same thing.

_Please don’t let him be kicked out for good._

 


	14. Chapter 14-Orion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mr. D lets on that he knows more than he lets on.

Chapter 14

_Orion_

 

_That’s it. They found out. They know everything I am, everything I did. The jig is up. I’m in for a world of punishment. Gods, how could I have been so stupid?_ I sat on a couch in the Big House parlor and watched a living leopard head mounted on the opposite wall itch the side of his face on a brass candlestick on the mantel below him. I was probably in the biggest trouble of my life, and that’s saying something.

            “Orion. Step into my office,” Mr. D invited from a nearby doorway. I did.

            Mr. D’s. “office” turned out to be some kind of rec room/kitchenette, the majority of which was taken up by a ping pong table surrounded with plastic chairs.

            “Take a seat,” he ordered. I did. “Have a drink.”

            “No thank you, sir—” a Diet Coke appeared in front of me anyway. I cracked it open and took a half-hearted sip.

            “How much do you know about Greek Mythology, Orion?” he asked, nursing his own Diet Coke at the other end of the ping-pong table.

            “Enough to survive, sir.”

            “Hm. And how much do you know about me?”

            “Only the basics, sir.” I shifted uncomfortably. Mr. D. seemed incredibly interested in the nutrition facts of his pop can, which was fine by me. I felt like if I made eye contact with him, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself from bursting into tears.

            “Then you know that I am one of Zeus’ many offspring, I’m sure. That Hera, out of jealousy, tricked Zeus into revealing his true form to my mother, disintegrating her and leaving me barely alive thanks only to my godly blood. That to keep me alive, Zeus sewed me into a cut on his thigh so that I could completely develop before birth.”

            _Gross,_ I thought, but I didn’t say anything. Mr. D didn’t notice.

            “Zeus was afraid that Hera would come after me in a jealous rage. In an attempt to disguise me, he found me a set of adoptive parents and instructed them to dress me and treat me as a girl in public. As a child, that can be…” Mr. D drummed his fingers on the table. “... Difficult.” I didn’t say anything.

            “I’m sure you’re wondering why I wanted to see you today,” he continued. “There’s been an unfortunate scheduling error.”

            “Sir?”

            “Due to this unfortunate scheduling error, the half-hour of your daily rec hour usually allocated to showering time has to be switched with a half-hour after lights out usually used for sleeping. You may make up this sleeping time during your rec hour or spend your rec hour as you choose. You may therefore shower at night.” He cleared his throat and his voice softened for a fraction of a second. “... Do you understand me?”

            I smiled a little at my Diet Coke. “Yes, sir.”

            “Good. The security harpies will be asked very nicely not to devour you on sight. No promises,” he added, business-like once more. He looked me over once. “Orion?”

            “Sir?”

            “Get out of my office.”

I did.


	15. Chapter 15-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryder throws Orion's bracelet into the freezing canoe lake, so Orion goes for an unexpected swim. Alex finds out that Kanuha isn't all friendly after all.

Chapter 15

_Alex_

 

            About a week or two after Orion’s shooting incident, Camp Half Blood’s usually flawless weather took a turn for the chilly. Malcolm explained to me that in December, a slightly more wintery atmosphere fell over the camp in preparation for the winter holidays. In the morning, a thin layer of frost coated the cabin windows. The canoeing lake was closed for the holidays with the hopes that it would freeze solid enough to be used as a skating rink. Campers wore insulated snowboarding jackets and zip up hoodies over their orange t-shirts, so that Orion looked a little less out of place in his giant coat.

            I’d really taken a liking to the little guy, sort of like a younger brother. He was a little strange— he didn’t speak often and spent a lot of time with Ally, and she wasn’t very fond of me. Sometimes I would wake in the middle of the night and see Orion creeping across the U of Olympian cabins towards the showers, a rolled-up towel under one arm. I guess that’s one way to beat the morning rush. Smart kid.

            Orion never straight up told me he had been homeless for a long time, but I got the idea. He always wore the same clothes (though the Hermes cabin counselor finally convinced him to adopt some camp t-shirts into his wardrobe), he ate like he didn’t know where his next meal would come from, and he always seemed uneasy. Maybe he didn’t feel like he had a home at Camp Half Blood because his father hadn’t claimed him yet. I hoped he would real soon.

            But I digress. A week or two after the shooting incident, I was sitting at a picnic table besides the canoe lake,  musing over a volume of minor gods and goddesses. Orion sat at the end of the canoe lake dock. He fussed with something small and silvery in his hands. For the most part, the morning was calm and enjoyable.

            Naturally, that couldn’t last.

            “No—no, Ryder, give it back—!”

            “Ew, what _is_ this?”

            I glanced up from my reading. Ryder held Orion’s bracelet just out of reach (which wasn’t hard to do, seeing how short Orion was).

            “Is this sterling silver? Do you accessorize like you’re decorating a Victorian nursery? Gods, why haven’t you recycled this and put it out of its misery?” Ryder sneered. He put one hand over his mouth and pretended to throw up. Orion forced a laugh, voice even higher pitched than usual with abject terror.

            “Ha, yeah, okay, okay give that back, that’s— that’s really important to me. Ryder please, my father gave that to me,” he begged desperately.

            “What, this piece of scrap metal? Your dad must hate you. Are you sure you want it back?” Ryder asked.

            Orion swallowed visibly and nodded. Ryder grinned maliciously.

            “Whoops!” he said. With a flick of his hand, Ryder sent the bracelet sailing through the air and into the center of the lake. Orion shouted and lunged after it, but Ryder yanked him back by the hood of his silver jacket.“My bad! Oh, and it’s too cold to go get it,” he pouted. “Believe me, I did you a favor,” he nodded sagely.

            _SPLASH!_

            Orion was gone. With a flash of panic and a stone cold dread, I remembered a conversation I’d overheard at the Hermes Cabin one lunchtime.

            _“Orion, why do you always wear that jacket?”_

_“Looks good on me.”_

_“You can’t see any of you in it.”_

_“That’s the way I like it.”_

_“What about when it’s hot?”_

_“I go somewhere it isn’t hot.”_

_“What about when you swim?”_

_“I can’t swim.”_

“HE CAN’T SWIM!” I shouted. I shouted a lot of other things, too, things I don’t remember about getting help and oh-god-what-do-we-do and some other stuff I don’t remember. Ryder did nothing. I had scrambled to the end of the dock and was ripping off my tennis shoes and socks to go in after him when a disgruntled naiad flopped Orion’s motionless, sopping wet body on the dock. That’s when  I felt the hysterics kicking in.

            “Oh NO NO NO WHAT DID YOU DO HE’S DEAD HE’S DEAD AND I DON’T KNOW CPR AND YOU KILLED HIM” I hyperventilated. The Naiad pulled herself up on the dock besides me and patted my shoulder. She made a graceful figure-eight-like gesture towards Orion with an outstretched hand. Then she thumped him hard in the middle of the chest with her clenched fist.

            Orion’s eyes flung open and he sat up suddenly, vomiting a spray of water. The naiad gave me a thumbs-up and slipped back into the canoe lake.

            “Wh—what?” he squinted, glassesless. “Is that…Phoebus? Alex? Where are my…?” A fountain of water shot out of the lake, landing Orion’s glasses in his lap. He put them on. I exhaled in relief.

            “I thought you were dead for sure. This is just like that part in _The Goblet of Fire,_ except it was an accident and the lake people are nicer and we’re not—” I stopped, interrupted by petty laughter.

            Ryder was doubled up with glee, snickering wickedly.

            “You really _are_ a freak,” he laughed. “What’s wrong with you? Gods, what a _weirdo!_ Nobody normal would ever—” he broke into laughter again.

            **“HEY.”**

            The entire dock rattled under heavy footsteps. I looked up to see Kanuha, but not like I’d ever seen him before. He bore down on Ryder he was the son of a rockslide and a hurricane.

            “You think you can make fun of him, put him in _danger_ , **JUST BECAUSE HE’S A LITTLE DIFFERENT THAN YOU?** ” Kanuha roared. Ryder looked unconcerned, but I noticed he’d stopped laughing.

            “Kanuha, be real,” Ryder scoffed. “He’s not a ‘little different’. He’s a total psycopa—hrk!” Ryder yelped as Kanuha grabbed him by the shirt collar and lifted him a foot off the dock with one hand. Ryder pawed ineffectively at the fist bunched around the fabric of his shirt. Kanuha’s eyes were full of fire. I don’t mean metaphorically. I mean they were literally glowing red.

            “If I _ever_ hear about something like this again…” Kanuha seethed. He dropped Ryder in a heap on the dock. Ryder put a hand to his throat, glaring at Kanuha as if he very much wanted the last word, but instead he clambered to his feet and scrambled away. Kanuha watched him go.

            I realized I was still staring, slack-jawed and wide-eyed.

            “Gee whiz,” I gasped.

            “What?” Kanuha snapped, the scarlet glow gone from his eyes.

            “I…. I guess I didn’t really believe you were the son of the god of war. Turns out you were just waiting for someone to fight,” I admitted. Kanuha looked me over, still visibly irritated.

            “War isn’t about having someone to fight,” he said finally. “It’s about having something to fight for.”

            I didn’t know what to say to that. In his oversized coat, Orion began to shiver violently.

            “Let’s get you cleaned up before you catch your death out here,” Kanuha decided, picking Orion up by his armpits. Orion squirmed uncomfortably at his touch.

            “It’s fine. I’ll take care of it,” he swore, teeth chattering.

            I didn’t know what to think of Kanuha or Orion or even Ryder, but of one thing I was certain.

            The bracelet must have been really freaking important.

 


	16. Chapter 16-Allafare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allafare witnesses an Iris message between the resident prophet and a Hunter of Artemis. Orion shows off his musical talent at the camp singalong.

Chapter 16

_Allafare_

 

            I was having an eventful afternoon (something I realized were becoming more and more common since Thing 1 and Thing 2 arrived at camp).

            Earlier Kanuha, looking frustrated and worried, had found me at the edge of the forest.

            “Orion did something stupid. We need your help,” he said.

            He lead me to the showers. Thing 2 was stationed outside one closed shower door, pounding wildly on it.

            “Orion, stop being unreasonable! You’ll get hypothermia with that wet jacket, just let me lend you some of my clothes!”

            “NO,” echoed Orion’s answer from inside. “Go get Ally.”

            “She’s here,” Kanuha called exasperatedly. “He had an incident with Ryder and the canoe lake earlier. He’s practically a popsicle by now, but he won’t change out of his wet clothes,” he explained to me.

            “So? What’s that got to do with me?” I asked.

            “He wants to talk to you,” Kanuha shrugged.

            I rolled up to the shower door and knocked on it.

            “Yeah, I’m here. Whatya want, Orion?” I called. There was a pause.

            “I need you to run my clothes through the laundry and bring them back to me,” he said quietly.

            “I’m not scheduled for laundry today. I don’t even think the laundry room in unlocked,” I replied.

            “Jack Kansas has an extra key. It’s why his clothes always smell so good. I need my clothes. Can you do it?” He asked. I groaned unenthusiastically. “It’s getting really cold in here,” Orion added. I could hear him shivering.

            “Fine. Give me your stuff,” I grumbled. The door opened barely a few inches and Orion’s skinny, pale arm shoved a cold, wet, stinking-like-lake-water tangle of clothes into my lap. “Thanks for that, pal. This is a wildly pleasant experience, I assure you,” I told Orion.

            “Now let me lend you a t-shirt or something, dude,” Alex protested, “It’s gonna take hours for your stuff to get clean and dry.”

            “No. I’ll wait here.”

            Alex started another round of pounding on the door and pleading with Orion. I left to begin my wild-laundry chase.

            A few hours later, Orion had his clothes back, but had missed lunch. He went off to scavenge for food from other kids. I sat at a table near the arts and crafts pavilion with Phoebus. They tapped a pen against their mouth thoughtfully as they flipped through a journal full of writing I didn’t recognize.

            “Prophecy junk?” I guessed. They nodded. Just then, the air before us shimmered. With a glint of rainbow and a spray of mist, an Iris message appeared. Iris messages were delivered by the goddess of rainbows as a method of communication between demigods since we can’t use cell phones without telling every monster in a 1000 mile radius “Here I am! I go nicely with steak sauce!”

            The girl sending the message was… something else altogether, I’ll tell you that much. She looked like the kind of girl who could give you a knuckle sandwich and make it feel like a celebrity autograph. She had icy blue eyes like chips of lightning stuck in glass. A silver circlet rested over short, spiked black hair. She wore a silver snowboarding jacket over a black t-shirt that read “PUNK’S NOT DEAD, BUT YOU ARE.”. She had a sharp, clever face and a voice to match.

            “Phoebus, you’re still at Camp Half Blood? I thought you’d be home by now,” she said. Phoebus shrugged and closed their journal. _What can I do for you?_ They signed.

            “Lady Artemis wants to know if there’s an update on that prophecy yet. Or if you can reveal that prophecy yet at all. She’s getting impatient about… you know,” she said, warily glancing at me. I forgot I wasn’t invisible.

            Phoebus snapped their thumb, index and middle finger together: the sign for _no_.

            “Don’t you DARE EAT THAT,” I heard somebody yell. Phoebus and I turned away from the Iris message to see Alex in hot pursuit of Orion, who bolted towards us across the grass with half a sandwich in hand.

            “It’s still good, five minute rule!” He insisted.

            “It’s five _seconds!_ ” Alex cried. Orion jumped on to our picnic table and springboarded off the other side, not even noticing the Iris message.

            “Not for me,” he called to Alex, taking a second to chomp off a corner of the sandwich and adjust his hat before taking off towards the volleyball courts.

“THAT IS SO UNSANITARY,” Alex SHOUTED, but he didn’t pursue. He leaned against our picnic table, gasping for breath.

            “His legs are….so short,” he wheezed, “how is he so fast? First hypothermia, next all kinds of food-borne illnesses… I swear, that kid has a deathwish.”

I cleared my throat pointedly.

            “Phoebus was in the middle of an important call,” I said.

            “Oh… oh, right, sorry,” Alex apologized, straightening up and ambling away. How rude.The girl in the Iris message seemed to think so too. She looked stiff, her face contorted in a cocktail of disbelief, anger, and something else that was hard to read.

            “Who was that?” she asked, her voice dangerously low. Phoebus signed _His name is Alex. He’s a new camper._

“No. The other one.”

_Another new camper. He calls himself Orion._ Her face became even more unreadable.

“... I have to go.” The Iris message disappeared.

            “That was weird,” I commented. Phoebus shrugged and opened their journal again, pouring over their notes.

* * *

            I was sort of hooked on the campfires now. The songs were stupid and the people were even more so, but it was fun to be stupid with them. Tonight there was an excited buzz going through all the campers: Kanuha had brought his ukulele.

            He demonstrated a few basic chords on it and passed it around the circle, letting kids hack out campfire songs while the rest of us sang loudly and out of tune. The flames of the fire were bright orange and stretched tall to the sky. The off-key notes were punctuated with laughter and jokes between friends. It was nice to be a part of.

            “Hey, Allafare, play us a tune!” Kanuha smiled, tossing me his ukulele. I caught it, but didn’t strum anything out.

            “Only my friends call me Allafare, punk.”

            “Nobody calls you Allafare,” Alex commented, sitting on the other side of Orion.

            “That’s because I don’t have any friends. And I don’t have any musical talent. Here, you take this,” I held the uke out to Alex over Orion’s head. He pushed it back towards me.

            “No way, you first,” he insisted.

            “Absolutely not.”

            “I couldn’t play maracas in an earthquake. You play it.”

            “No, you.”

            “You!” He shoved the uke a little too hard and I lost my  grip on it. It fell into Orion’s lap. He gingerly picked it up, mimicking Kanuha’s grip.

            “Like… like this?” he asked. Kanuha grinned and nodded. Orion strummed a few chords that sounded pretty good. Everybody took up a campfire song about what to do with a dragon with various ailments (starting with a headache and moving all the way down to a tail ache).

            By the time we got to the dragon’s stomach ache, half the people had stopped singing and were just watching Orion. Like, if you’d have told me it was possible to shred on the ukulele, I wouldn’t have believed you until that night. The guy seriously knew how to rock.

I don’t believe in love at first sight, because love at first sight is a lot of trash, but the way Orion’s face lit up while singing and playing made me think maybe love at first sight existed in the most sacred bond of all: that between a boy and his instrument.

When the last verse ended, Orion played one last riff and ended it with a dramatic flourish and a grin. The circle erupted into applause and whistles.

“Where’d you learn to play like that?” Kanuha questioned.

“Uh… just now,” Orion admitted. “I’ve never tried before. I used to take piano lessons , though.” Kanuha gave a low whistle

“You’ve got some natural born talent,” he mused. Several campers murmured in agreement.

“He sounds like a girl when he sings,” somebody whispered not-so-quietly. I didn’t even have to look to know who it was. I gritted my teeth. Kanuha cracked his knuckles. But Malcolm beat us to the punch (unfortunately, not an actual punch.)

“Hey, lay off, Ryder! He’s only eleven. His voice just hasn’t dropped yet,” Malcolm said. a chorus of “yeah, what a jerk”s and “don’t be so rude” followed suit, but the light drained out of Orion’s face.

“Someone else can have a turn,” he muttered, passing the ukulele off to a girl in Athena cabin. That made me mad. Orion had only looked happy a handful of times since he arrived at camp, and it seemed like every time was ended by Ryder. One of these days, he was gonna get it. With any luck, I’d be the one to deliver it.

When the campfire was over and all the cabin lights were off, Orion leaned over the side of his bunk.

“Hey, Ally?” he asked sleepily.

“Hm?”

“Do I sound like a girl when I sing?”

“No, ‘course not!” I lied. “You just sound young.”

Orion paused. “I’m older than I look,” he muttered.

“Whatever you say, pal,” I yawned and fell asleep.


	17. Chapter 17-Allafare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hunters of Artemis show up looking for Orion... but he's nowhere to be found. Phoebus has a prophecy for Alex and Allafare.

Chapter 17

_Allafare_

 

            “What was our time?” Orion asked.

            “Sorry, I stopped counting after you almost ran over Phoebus.” I told him. When it came to sports, I wasn’t a big fan of Major League Racing-Ally-to-Breakfast-as-Fast-as-You-Can, but Orion sure seemed to enjoy it. For his sake, I accepted the possibility that one of these days, he would paralyze me from the waist up.

            “You know what would be wicked? We should ask them to put a loop-de-loop in the Cabin 11 ramp. Then if we got enough speed we could” Orion made a hand motion somewhere between an airplane and a dolphin having a seizure.

            “First of all, that’s not how physics works. Second of all, I don’t even know who put that ramp in. Probably Chiron or something.”

            “You never asked?” Orion questioned, taking a seat at the Hermes table. I scoffed.

            “Why should I? ‘Gee, someone was considerate enough to make sure I could get to my own bed on my own? What a luxury!’” I rolled my eyes. “I don’t owe anybody a thank you. You ask, if you’re so curious.”

            “You know what else would be wicked?” Orion continued, ignoring me. “You should get pegs on the back of your chair. You know, like bike pegs, where somebody can stand on the back wheel? Except straight back, so I could stand on them. I bet we could break our personal record that way,” he mused.

            _Or break my neck,_ I thought as the magical cup in front of me filled itself with orange juice.

            Once everybody made their offerings at the central brazier and took their seats once more, Mr. D called for silence.

            “Quiet, please. I have an announcement,” he said. The chatter of the dining pavilion died away. “In addition to our visitor from Camp Jupiter—” he waved his hand vaguely in Phoebus’ direction “—I have just received word that Camp Half Blood will have the honor of hosting the Hunters of Artemis, starting—” I didn’t hear when, because Orion choked on a piece of chocolate chip pancakes and started coughing.

            “Dude, cut it out, I’m trying to hear what’s going on,” I whispered. Orion took a swig of milk, but still looked like he was having trouble breathing.

            “I expect everyone to be on their best behavior. Aphrodite children, try to keep the fighting to a minimal. And no, due to the dropping temperatures and our lack of campers for the winter session, there will be no game of Capture the Flag,” said Mr. D. The pavilion heaved a collective sigh of relief.

            Mr. D sat down and an excited chatter about the Hunters rose up from every table. Head counselors and older kids who had been at camp the last time the Hunters came told younger kids (like me) what they remembered.

            Orion didn’t say anything, which was typical of him. He also didn’t eat, which was not. As we left the hill after breakfast, Alex jogged to catch up with us.

            “Wow, isn’t this exciting?” He grinned in an especially obnoxious way. “I hope they don’t hate us. I’ve read that the Hunters can get a little avid about their ‘no men allowed’ policy.”

            “Uhuh,”said Orion.

            “I read that sometimes, if a Hunter falls in love or breaks her vows, Artemis will have her turned into an animal,” he said.

            “Yeah?” said Orion.

            “Or that if she did something really bad, sometimes Artemis and the other Hunters will even hunt her in her animal form,” he said.

            “Oh boy,” said Orion.

            “I’ve read that—”

            “Nobody cares what you read!” I snapped. “Who cares if Artemis’ favorite color is red or blue? Who cares what her favorite hobby is? It doesn’t even matter! Nobody cares but you!”  

            Alex fumbled with the zipper of his hoodie..

            “I just...think it’s good to be informed. We might need to know this stuff on a quest someday,” he replied.

            “Well some of us ain’t never goin’ on quests,” I growled. For once, Alex stayed shut up. “C’mon, Orion. Let’s go,” I muttered, giving my chair’s wheels a big heave to get them moving on the frost-covered grass.

            “Actually, I, uh… I think I ate too much. I feel sort of sick. I’m gonna go see if any of the Apollo kids can give me something for a stomachache. You guys go ahead.” He spun on his heel and set off back towards the cabins at a light jog.

            “...Sorry,” Alex said when Orion had gone.

            “I don’t want your apology,” I grumbled. “Beat it.”

            “Alright. Uh. See ya,” he gave an awkward wave and walked away. I stuck my tongue out him as he went.

            I was alone, just like old times. Good.

            Except alone didn’t seem that fun anymore. Having a bunkmate was starting to turn me all gross and friendly. Well that wouldn’t do, thanks very much. I was fine as a lone wolf without him before and I was just fine as a lone wolf without him now. I was, by strict nature, a solitary person, and thank the gods for the chance to spend a little alone time without somebody interrupting my train of thought every six seconds.

            I decided to see what James was up to.

            As I drew close the the weapons forges, I saw her studying over a blueprint on a table outside. Despite the slight chill in the air, she wore a grease-stained tank top that might have once been white over her cargo pants. It stood in stark contrast against her nearly pitch black skin.

            “James, hey! I haven’t seen you around in weeks!” I called with a wave. She glanced at me and hurriedly rolled up her blueprint, tucking it under her arm.

            “Hey, Ally.” She bounced on her heels, head tilted to one side and eyes on the sky.

            “Where you been? Been working on something big?”

            “Big, yeah,” she answered, adjusting the blueprint under her arm.

            “Can I see?” I asked.

            “No,” she replied immediately.

            “Oh. Okay. Maybe some other time?” I suggested. She bounced more urgently and ran one grease-smeared hand through the short, tightly curled hair of her mohawk.

            “It’s not ready yet,” she muttered finally.

            “I bet it’s gonna be awesome. You’ve been working on it for a while now, haven’t you?”

            James nodded.

            “Can I see it when it’s done?”

            She nodded harder.

            “Do you want me to go away?”

            She kept nodding.

            “Alright. See you around, James.”

            Way to strike out, Allafare. I thought about hunting down Kanuha, but what would be the point? People didn’t like to be around me. I was stupid to think otherwise. _Well, fine. I don’t like being around people,_ I thought, but it didn’t seem as true as it used to be.

 

* * *

 

            Lunch came and went. So did most of the afternoon. Orion must have stayed sick in bed. I don’t think I’ve ever been so bored in my entire life.

            Half an hour before dinner, I sat at the foot of the Big House stairs. I irritably drummed my fingers on the armrest of my chair. _What did I used to do for fun?_ I thought. I was trying to remember when a single loud, low note sounded from Half Blood Hill.

            Everything went still as the low note sounded again: the sound of a hunting horn. I turned to Half Blood Hill. Six figures, all in silver, stood between the Athena Parthenos and the pine tree that bore the golden fleece. For a moment, they stood in silence, overlooking the camp. Then they began their descent.

            Flashes of silver, white, grey, and platinum danced at their heels as they ran down the hill. As they drew closer, I realized the flashes were either wolves or hunting dogs. There was one dog for each girl.

            They came to a skidding halt in front of the big house, All six of them wore silver snowboarding jackets that were zipped up to their chins, except for the tallest. I recognized her as the girl from Phoebus’ Iris message. She wore her jacket unzipped, showing off another black T-shirt with curly cursive writing that said “Ask me about my license to kill.” It went nicely with the silver circlet on her head. She jumped the Big House’s porch steps two at a time and pounded on the door.

            “Mr. D! It’s Thalia, come quick!” she called. The other five Hunters caught their breath as their wolves paced warily about their feet. One wolf-dog was a little _too_ interested in the smell of my wheelchair tires.

            “Uh… do you mind?” I asked the closest Hunter, a short Asian girl with her hair braided back in thick strands.

            “C’mere, girl,” she called.

            _Keep your puppy out of my grills,_ I thought.

            “Mr. D!” Thalia shouted again. The door opened, but it was Chiron who stood inside, looking surprised.

            “Thalia? What on earth are you doing here so soon? Goodness, are these all the Hunters you’ve brought with you?” he questioned, taking in the other girls.

            “We came as quickly as we could. Artemis and the others will be on their way in the next few days. I can’t explain right now, call an all-camp emergency meeting as soon as you can,” she replied urgently. Chiron still seemed bewildered, but he nodded.

            “As you wish. Go, gather as many campers as you can on your way to the amphitheater. Allafare, I imagine you’d better get yourself there as well,” he added.

            “What’s the emergency?” I asked, but the Hunters had already sprinted away. Chiron didn’t seem to know any more than I did.

            “I suppose we’ll have to wait and see,” he said.

            By the time I got to the amphitheater, almost everyone was already there. The trip to the amphitheater was through long, wet grass that slowed down my chair. My arms were sore by the time I got there.

            I scanned the crowd for Orion, but I couldn’t find him, although I did see Alex sitting expectantly with two seats saved next to him. No way I was sitting with that goody two-shoes if Orion wasn’t gonna be there to make the experience slightly more bearable. James had a spot open next to her, so I made my way over there instead.

            The amphitheater was loud with chatter and speculations. Overhead, the sky was already beginning to darken. Mr. D sat in a lawn chair in the middle of the amphitheater while a group of satyrs tended to a campfire almost as large as the one used for campsingalongs. I guess they didn’t want us to run out of light.

            _How long is this meeting supposed to last?_

            The conversations between campers came to a grinding halt as Thalia and the other Hunters stepped into the center of the Amphitheater. She scanned the crowd critically and silently while we all held our breath. She seemed disappointed, but not surprised, by what she found.

            “My name is Thalia Grace,” she began, pacing the amphitheater slowly so as to make eye-contact with every member of the crowd (at least it felt that way). There was no other sound besides that of her footsteps on the sand and the crackle of the fire.  

            “I am the lieutenant of Artemis and leader of her hunt. Recently, I received word that Camp Half Blood has been harboring the subject of our latest hunt. He goes by the name Orion.”

            _What? No. No, that can’t be what she said,_ I thought, but the murmurs of shock and disbelief rippling through the amphitheater told me that she really did just say Orion’s name.

            “He’s dangerous. He’s highly trained, highly capable, and suspected to be in possession of a very powerful weapon. He is the leading suspect in Apollo’s disappearance,” Thalia continued.

            “Apollo is missing???” cried Will Solace, the head counselor of Apollo cabin. His blue eyes were wide in alarm. His younger brothers and sisters gasped and whispered anxiously to each other.

            “This is all that Lady Artemis has given me permission to disclose. That being said, withholding information that could lead to Orion’s capture will result in serious consequences,” she said. She cracked her knuckles. What a woman. “Where is he?” she growled.

            “He’s gone!” Every head in the stands turned sharply towards Jack Kansas. He stood doubled up at the entrance to the amphitheater, trying to catch his breath.

“I…. I just checked the cabin,” he wheezed, “His bag, his clothes…. all of it. Gone,” he shook his head.

            The amphitheater erupted into chaos too loud for anybody to be heard over anybody else. One little girl from Iris cabin started to cry. Somebody in the top row fell out of their seat.

“SILENCE!” The fire flared a deep purple color as Mr. D gritted his teeth and settled back into his lawn chair. “Now, _children_ ,” he said the word like somebody was slowly pulling duct tape off a particular hairy part of his body. “If we can’t all be _polite_ and take _turns_ speaking, then nobody gets to say anything at all. Capiche?”

            There was a nervous silence and shuffling of feet as everybody tried to gauge who would go first. When somebody finally spoke, it was worse than the silence.

            “Well… I warned you all, didn’t I?” Ryder lamented, victory smeared all over his stupid face. “The facts are what they are. He’s always been a little freak. Frankly, I’m not surprised. After all, he made an attempt on my life. _Twice_ ,” he added with a sickening pout. “Don’t tell me you haven’t realized how weird he is,” he challenged.

            “...He was always sneaking out at night,” Jack Kansas admitted. I felt a stab of betrayal in my gut. What ever happened to cabin solidarity?

            “He wasn’t sneaking out!” I protested, “He was going to the showers! He had a scheduling error, right Mr. D?”

            “No comment,” Mr. D. monotoned, nursing a diet coke.

            “He _was_ a little suspicious,” continued Malcolm. Alex gave his counselor a horrified look. “He was way more advanced in combat than any new demigod should be. And we never even knew where he was from, or anything else besides a name.”

            “So?” I spat. “He didn’t like to talk! Phoebus doesn’t talk, and I don’t see _their_ head on the chopping block.” I don’t think Phoebus heard me, but they would have backed me up if they had. Their nose was buried in their journal, eyes frantically darting over the pages.

            “That’s not the same and you know it, Ally,” Malcolm said.

            “It… It would explain why he was never claimed,” said Kanuha from directly behind me. I twisted around in my chair as much as I could. He seemed uncomfortable making eye contact with me. _Good._

            “Whose side are you on?” I growled.

            “I’m on Camp Half-Blood’s side! If Orion is a danger to the people in this camp, he needs to be stopped and brought to justice,” pleaded. “Besides… Look at the circumstances, Ally. The innocent don’t run.” Kanuha shifted uncomfortably in the following silence.

            “Shame on you,” I said, only loud enough for him to hear. Then, to the rest of the campers and Hunters, “This is a witch hunt! This camp is supposed to be full of heroes, but not one of you is willing to stand up for a kid who isn’t even here to defend himself. Well, fine. I’ll do it myself.” I didn’t know what was coming out of my mouth, but I knew it was true. “I’ll find him, and I’ll _prove_ he’s innocent!”

            “Then I’m going too,” Alex chimed.

            “I don’t need your help,” I snarled. Alex looked like the pound had come to reclaim his new favorite puppy.

            “He’s my friend too, Ally.”

I glared at him, but he didn’t say anything else. I realized everybody was waiting for my response.

            “Oh, for the love of Hera… now, Phoebus?” Mr. D groaned. He massaged his temples with one hand and gripped his can of Coke a little too tightly with the other. Unnoticed by the crowd, Phoebus had slipped out of the stands and was now standing beside Mr. D’s lawnchair, tugging at the sleeve of his leopard-print Hawaiian shirt. “Can’t this wait?” Mr.Dsaid.

            Phoebus shook their head. They opened their journal and flipped through the pages. Halfway through the book, Phoebus dog-eared one of the pages and laid it open on the armrest of Mr. D’s chair.

            _I sign, you speak_ , they signed to Thalia. Then, they buried their gaze in the pages and began to rapidly sign. Thalia intently studied their motions.

            “ _Blood of Owl, Thief, and Day,_ ” she read, _“Will quest to the chasm where serpents lay. The swallowed god again will rise, Revealed will by the liar’s disguise.”_

Phoebus snapped shut their journal and left the amphitheater without another word.

            “So…. where does that leave us?” Alex asked in confusion.

            “That leaves you setting off for your first quest tomorrow morning,” Mr D. said. “And it leaves the rest of us going to bed. The first person to make a sound gets dish duty for the next three months. Lights out in ten minutes.”

            _A quest?_ I thought. My head was spinning. Try as I might, I couldn’t quite grasp what I had gotten myself into.

 


	18. Chapter 18- Allafare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James has an early birthday present for Ally.

Chapter 18

_Allafare_

 

            The next morning, Chiron told Alex and me that he would discuss the arrangements for our quest after breakfast. He told us to “take it easy” until then. My nerves didn’t get the memo.

            Breakfast was tense. The whole table seemed torn between giving me their congratulations and their condolences. Nobody had the guts to point out the fact that even able-bodied demigods have a hard time returning from quests alive. They didn’t really talk to me at all, which was fine because in my eyes they were all dirty cowards for hanging Orion out to dry and I wouldn’t miss any of them, not one bit, and especially not Jack Kansas.

            “Take care out there, huh Ally?” Jack mumbled over scrambled eggs.

            _Snitch,_ I thought over untouched pancakes.

            I thought I better pack my bag. I was making my way down the hill when my wheel fell into a dent in the lawn. I tried to push it out. It didn’t move. I twisted awkwardly to use both hands to shove it as hard as I could. My chair lurched forward and then tipped dangerously backwards, threatening to fall. A lightning bolt of fear shot through me. I scrambled back upright, heart beating fast in my chest. I shoved the wheel violently.

            “I—Hate—You—You—Stupid—Awful—Useless—CHAIR,” I seethed between shoves.

            “Ally?”

            “WHAT.” I looked up to see James bouncing on her toes next to me.

            “It’s done,” she said. It took me a moment to remember our conversation yesterday.

            “Now’s not really a good time,” I gritted my teeth. She bounced faster.

            “It’s done.”

            “I have to get ready for my quest,” I said, finally dislodging my chair from the dent in the lawn.

            “It’s done.”

            “...Do you want me to come see it?”

            James nodded.

            “Alright. Let’s go,” I sighed.

            She lead me to the weapons forges . They smelled like hot metal and sweat. James weaved through anvils, fellow children of Hephaestus, and glowing orange fires to a doorway at the back of the forges. I navigated around metal scrap and other debris in her wake. Man, for a guy who was crippled right after birth, Hephaestus sure didn’t seem concerned with making his workshops handicap accessible.  A beach towel held up on a shower curtain rod stretched across the back doorway. James held the towel back and gestured for me to enter. I did.

            There was another room of forges as big as the ones we just left, but most of the fires were unlit, and only one or two tables was cluttered with the evidence of hard work. Most of it, I guessed, was James’s.

            “Why isn’t anybody back here?” I asked.

James had already made her way to the other side of the room and disappeared from view, rummaging through shelves and scrap metal, but she answered “We only need these ones in the summer when there’s more campers. I like ‘em better in the winter because it’s not as loud.” She popped up behind a work table and waved me over.

I wheeled through the maze of work tables. As I came around the end of the table closest to James, I gasped.

“It was supposed to be ready for your birthday,” James said, bouncing only a little on her heels. She paused. “December 13th,” she added, in case I forgot. Still, all I could do was stare.

Wheelchairs, by nature, are items of functional design. They do exactly what they’re meant to do and not much else. They sometimes come in different colors, or different-ish styles, but a wheelchair is a wheelchair is a wheelchair is a wheelchair. Wheelchairs are not beautiful.

But this one was.

The fabric of the seat was plain black, but the mechanisms were all forged of celestial bronze. Most chairs are made of smooth bars meant to be aesthetically calming or unremarkable, meant not to be noticed (as if that isn’t the first thing people notice about me). James’s chair was made of untamed, unsmoothed, sharp angles, like the gears inside an old-fashioned clock.

It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

“It’s awesome,” I gaped. “How long did this take you?”

“Not that long,” she mumbled, bouncing again, “You don’t have to use it.”

“You made this for me?”

“You—you don’t have to use it,” she stared at the ground.

“I’m gonna use it.”

“You don’t have to,” she bounced harder. “I’m not that good at faces,” she muttered, “I can’t tell if— you don’t have to use it.”

“ _I like it,_ ” I promised. Relief washed over James’s face and she sank back on her heels.

“Oh. Okay. Good.”

“Tell me about it,” I prompted. She grinned and spinned the chair to give me a 360° view.

“I know you don’t like help, so it’s not enchanted or anything. Just really _really_ good engineering. I’m really smart,” she added. “The axle interiors are fitted with microweights that magnify or cushion inertia based on the movement of the wheels.” She tilted the chair upwards so I could see underneath. “Essentially, it’s easier to start and stop. It take about 83.29% less effort to get it moving, but that’s not a perfect calculation. There’s a few more decimal places.” She set the chair back down.

“It’s built specifically for your dimensions, and the parts are expandable, so it can grow when you do, based on weight distribution on the different pressure points in the undercarriage. It’s all lightweight tempered Celestial Bronze-Imperial Gold alloy.” She flicked out two handles on the back of the seat with a shrug. “You probably don’t need these, but I figured just in case… that’s why they’re fold-out. But here’s the best part.” She rolled the chair towards me. Even in the shade, the wheels’ spokes threw the sunlight off in sparks like lightning. “Here, try it,” she urged.

Chair-to-chair transfers are a little harder for me than chair-to-bed transfers. A lot of the time I can’t do them on my own. But come on, I couldn’t just _not_ use James’ chair. It was seriously wicked, and probably took a really long time to make. Not that I was going to say so out loud, because I’m not some sappy loser, but it was sort of the nicest thing anybody had done for me in a really long time, so I let her lift me into the other chair. She was way stronger than she looked.

            “Holy cow… this is so freakin’ _comfortable_ ,” I said. James smiled at the ceiling.

            “Twist the armrests inward,” she said.

            “Huh?”

            “The armrests. Twist them towards you.”

            I grabbed the armrests and found that they pivoted on their supports. I twisted them so they were parallel to my body. The chair made a sound like a clock winding up. To my surprise, its parts began folding into itself, mechanically collapsing with a series of metallic clicks that lowered me to the ground. Finally, it placed me gently on the floor before completely folding up into the armrest and collapsing into a small bronze tin the size of a compact mirror.

            “Whoa.”

            “Twist the top and bottom now.”

            I did, and the tin expanded back into a chair, scooping me up in the process.

            “It’ll be faster once you wear it in.” James ran her fingers through her hair. “Oh! I almost forgot.” She kicked down two pieces of metal on the back of the chair. “Pegs, by special request.”

            I didn’t know what to say. In retrospect, it probably should have been ‘thank you’ But instead, I said something really smart like “You didn’t have—I really like—Sick, dude.” _Idiot._

            James smiled at her shoes. “You have to pack. You can leave now.”

I started towards the cabins (and boy, was she right-- those wheels moved like a dream). I paused at the door and tried again to articulate gratitude. James was already picking through scrap metal for her next big project.

            “This is seriously so wicked cool. It’s awesome,” I said.

            “Yeah, well. I think you’re—” she she screwed up her face in deep thought. “—Seriously so wicked cool,” she decided. “And awesome.”

            Even in the diffused sunlight of the cloudy day, the chair gave the Apollo cabin a run for it’s money in the shiny department. I got to my cabin twice as fast as usually and my arms only ached half as much. I was about to tap the knothole in the railing post that transformed the stairs when I realized Orion had been right about at least one thing. Ramps didn’t come from nowhere. I felt a twinge in my chest.

            _Thanks, James._


	19. Chapter 19-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lord Hermes visits Alex and Allafare with a couple of helpful gifts before they depart on their quest.

Chapter 19

_Alex_

 

            I sat at the foot of the Athena Parthenos with my sword in my lap. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to accomplish. My mom and I have never been super religious. We don’t say grace over dinner or anything like that. I didn’t have a lot of experience in the prayer field, but I tried my best.

            I took the hilt of the sword in both hands and knelt before the enormous statue of Athena, my head bowed. It would have felt stupid with anybody else around, but luckily I had skipped breakfast to come here alone.

            _Athena_ , I thought, _er— mother. Keep us on the right path during this quest. Help me prove Orion’s innocence. Please keep Mom and Bounce and Cabin 6 safe while I’m away. Um… that’s all. Oh, and thanks for the sword._

I looked up at Athena’s stone expression. She was definitely the woman I’d met in the train station, but besides that, I had no memory of her. Had I ever seen a photo of her with my mom, or met her when I was a baby? Until this month, she might as well have been nonexistent to me. Did she really care whether or not our quest was a success?

She must have. If she didn’t care about my survival, why would she give me my sword? I thoughtfully traced the olive branches engraved in the bronze blade. Half-Blood Hill was a nice place. The pine tree with the golden fleece on it gave off a sharp, fresh smell that mingled with the breeze off of Long Island Sound. No wonder Ally came up here to be alone. I stayed there a long time, then finally tread down the hill to rejoin the rest of the camp.

* * *

            “Ally! Hey, Allafare!” I called, running to catch up. She had a brand-new wheelchair, and from the looks of it it was a lot faster. Even as I pulled up besides her, I had to half-walk, half-jog to keep up. “So for our quest, our counselors packed us some ambrosia, some nectar, and a couple dozen drachmas. I have a few hundred dollars left from my trip to camp, and then some necessities… I didn’t want to overpack,” I admitted, rummaging through my messenger bag. “I was thinking for our quest, we could start—”

“Our quest?” Ally stopped so suddenly that I almost walked past her. “Let’s get something straight, blondie. This ain’t _our_ quest, this is _my_ quest. I don’t need you and I don’t need your help. As a matter of fact, if it were up to me, you wouldn’t even be allowed to come.”

“Then boy, are you gonna be disappointed to hear about me,” said a voice behind us. We both turned to see Thalia and Chiron cantering up behind us (I mean, Chiron cantered. Thalia sort of… stalked.) Thalia wore a backpack over her ski jacket. Ally gave a groan of annoyance.

“Chiron, what is _she_ doing her?” she complained.

“I’m coming with you,” said Thalia.

“She’s not coming with us,” said Ally.

“She’s coming with you,” said Chiron.

            “I think she’s coming with us,” I said.

            “Shut up Alex,” Ally said. “I don’t need some Hunter’s help. I can do this on my own.”

            “You heard the prophecy, scamp,” said Thalia, “Blood of owl and thief, that’s you two. Blood of day, I figure that’s me. My father is Zeus, lord of the sky. Besides,” Thalia explained, “You can’t find him without me. I guarantee it.” Ally rolled her eyes.

            “Oh yeah? Why is that? Do you make a habit of tracking down innocent children?”

            “Only the ones that pose a threat,” Thalia replied. “Orion can’t be hunted by conventional means. We can’t explain it, but he’s untraceable as far as magical methods go. For some reason, he doesn’t give off the non-mortal aura that demigods and hunters have that  makes it so easy for monsters to find us. Unfortunately, that means that we can’t find him either.”

            “So how are we supposed to find him?” I asked. Thalia’s grim smile didn’t make me feel any better about playing bounty hunter.

            “Bloodhounds,” she said. “Artemis’ wolves are more than just allies in battle. He can still be hunted like a mortal. I need something he’s worn or used in the past couple weeks, something with his scent on it,” she explained. “Think you can get me something to work with?”

“Thalia will follow his scent on the ground, and you two can follow on pegasus,” Chiron continued. “Quests do best with three members anyhow. It would bode well for you all to work together.”

            Ally gave a huff, but didn’t complain further. She mumbled that she would check her cabin for something of Orion’s and spun away. “C’mon, blondie,” she growled. I followed her. The whole way there she mumbled under her breath in Ancient Greek. I was surprised to find that I could understand her perfectly. I sort of wish I couldn’t. Sure hope she doesn’t kiss her mother with that mouth.

            In the Hermes Cabin, the bunk above Ally’s was eerily sterile. Even the sheets had been pulled off the mattress. The shelf next to it was completely empty, even of dust.

            The glint of metal in one of Ally’s shelves caught my eye.  “Hey… Hey! Did you pick-pocket me?” I accused. Ally scoffed.

            “Like you’re worth my time.”

            “Then how do you explain this?” I pulled my iPod out of her shelf. “This is mine!”

            “So automatically I just _stole_ it? Oh yeah, that’s totally fair.”

            “It’s in your stuff, and your father is the god of thieves,” I growled.

            “OH my GODS, like that’s not circumstantial evidence.”

            “Why’s it in your cabin then?”

            “Ask Orion, he was the one using it all the time!”

            “...Oh. Sorry. He probably borrowed it. I bet he’s been using it a ton. That means…” I trailed off. We could use my iPod to hunt Orion down. I could tell Ally thought the same thing. Under her perpetually-ticked-off demeanor, she seemed uneasy. “This doesn’t feel right,” I muttered. “You don’t hunt people.”

            “Somebody’s gotta prove him innocent,” she said.

_What if he’s not?_

            Ally crammed some last minute items into a bag slung over the back of her wheelchair. We left Cabin 11 and made our way to the pegasus stables. Chiron, Thalia, and one of the Hunters’ wolves were waiting there for us. Chiron explained that our pegasus (a huge brown mare equipped with a double saddle and a training harness that would keep Ally from falling off) would be able to track Thalia and her wolf from the air

            “If anybody can find him, 8-Track can,” Thalia said, giving the wolf a pat. The silvery-white wolf stared intently at my pocket. I pulled out my iPod and 8-Track half-growled, half-whined. She furiously sniffed at the device, then glanced at Thalia and nimbly streaked away across the strawberry fields.

            “Give us half an hour’s head start,” Thalia said. Then she sprinted after 8-Track. When she had disappeared over the horizon, Chiron turned to us.

            “Alex, Allafare, listen to me. Quests are a dangerous matter, even for the most experienced demigods. Thalia should be a great deal of help to you, but you may find yourselves in a situation where you have only yourself and your wits. Be careful, and always be smart,” he warned, a gleam in his eye. “Good luck.” With that, he trotted away, leaving me and Ally with our horse. Ally sighed.

            “This is gonna suck,” she muttered.

We sat in silence. I pulled out my copy of _The Hobbit_ and read, but I finished the book in  five minutes. Ever since Athena had claimed me, I hadn’t been able to turn off my speed-reading. It was a blessing and a curse. We sat for another five minutes in awkward silence, interrupted only by the snorts of pegasi. Ally drummed her fingers on the armrest of her wheelchair.

“Excuse me,” rang a voice from outside the stables, “Delivery for Miss Winsover? I need a signature.”

“I didn’t order anyth—” Ally started irritably, turning to the speaker. Her face lit up with joy. “Dad!” She sped into the embrace of a slender, fatherly-looking man in a mailman’s uniform with a cardboard box under one arm.“What are you doing here?” She exclaimed. He laughed. Under his curly black hair, he had the same upturned nose and sly grin as Ally, though his eyes were blue.

“Come on, what kind of a parent would I be if I didn’t show up for my little girl’s first quest?” He smiled. He caught sight of me standing awkwardly to the side. “Er—of course, some of the Olympians are really busy—”

“It’s fine,” I interrupted, patting my satchel. “I have a sword.”

“Allafare, aren’t you going to introduce me?” he scolded. Ally rolled her eyes.

“Alex, this is my dad, Lord Hermes, god of thieves, etcetera etcetera etcetera. Dad, this is Alex, my…” She paused distastefully. “Accomplice.”

“Questmate,” I offered.

“Well he’s cute,” Hermes teased, elbowing Ally.

“Not really,” she disagreed. _I’m standing right here._

“Oh! Speaking of quests…” Hermes put the package down on the ground. The feathered wings on his tennis shoes flitted restlessly. “Let’s see, we’ve got some water bottles, some granola bars…”

“Are these magic?” Ally asked doubtfully.

“No. They’re practical,” Hermes answered, handing us a water bottle and a bag of snacks each. “Here, this one’s for you, Allafare.” He handed her a long, triangular crystal of glass.

“What is it?”

“It’s a prism.”

“Is it magic?”

“It’s science.”

Ally groaned.

“So much more convenient than waterborne Iris messages. As long as you have light, you can make a rainbow. As long as you have a rainbow, you can call a friend. As far as demigods are concerned, it’s a cellphone,” Hermes explained. “One last thing…” he handed her a sheet of big white stickers that read **HERMES EXPRESS: RETURN TO SENDER**. “Use these only in case of emergency.”

“Are they magic?” Ally asked hopefully.

“Yes.”

“Awesome! What do they do?”

“Anything they stick to will be returned instantly to Camp Half-Blood. I want you kids to use them if things get too rough out there.” Hermes’ face turned grim. “The gods are… uneasy. We all have enemies. Sometimes we get captured. Sometimes we go missing. It’s part of life on Olympus. But Apollo’s disappearance was different. He knew something was after him. He warned his sister before he disappeared—” He shook his head. “It’s not my place to discuss. But know this: The eldest gods are looking for a scapegoat. It doesn’t matter if your friend is innocent. If you can’t prove someone else is guilty, he will suffer the consequences.”

Oh. Great.

“Thank you, Lord Hermes,” I said.

“Yeah, thanks Dad,” Ally replied. Hermes half-smiled, but his eyes were sad.

“I don’t suppose there’s any use telling you to be careful?” he questioned.

“Not a bit,” Ally replied. Hermes shook his head.

“You are so your mother’s child,” he sighed, before he vanished with the sound of wings and a gust of wind.

I checked my watch. Half an hour had passed.

“It’s time,” I said. “Let’s go.”


	20. Chapter 20-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex tries to sword fight a cloud; it goes poorly.

Chapter 20

_Alex_

 

Ally sat in front and held onto the reigns, but there wasn’t any need. Our pegasus seemed to know exactly where she had to go. She sailed just over the cloud cover, where the air was brisk and damp. Every now and again, we caught a glimpse of water or cities or sprawling green-grey land through the clouds before thick grey mist swallowed them up again.

“Won’t somebody see us?” I asked, breaking the foggy silence.

“Nah. Don’t you know about the Mist?” Ally didn’t look back at me when she spoke. “It’s the magical force that edits what mortals see so that they can live in their world without too much trouble from ours. Works on most mortals, sometimes demigods too. Duh.”

“Oh. I knew that,” I said, which I didn’t.

“Some people can learn to control it. Manipulate it to their will or whatever. I never seen it done, though,” she added.

Time seemed to pass slower than usual.  I checked my watch, but I’d forgotten what time we left. I wondered what state we were over, or even which direction we’d gone. Suspended in the fog, nothing seemed real.

As the sky began to dim, our pegasus became uneasy. She snorted irritably and was jumpier. Fluffy white cotton turned to charcoal and purple masses of clouds that churned as if they were alive. Sparks of lightning shot through the clouds in unexpected places, making our pegasus swerve nervously. The clouds rumbled… or maybe growled.

“Weird time of year for a thunderstorm,” Ally noted quietly.

“I don’t think this is a thunderstorm,” I breathed. Before our eyes, the clouds took shape. The forms of horses with electric eyes bled in and out of the humid darkness. “ _Anemoi thuelli_.”

“Animal the-what?” Ally asked, her voice low.

“Storm spirits.”

The spirits became more restless at the mention of their name. Our pegasus glanced wildly from side to side and flared her nostrils. The winds picked up around us, sending a chill through my jacket and buffeting our steed off course.

I drew my sword from my satchel and gripped the hilt tight. The air became tenser, more humid, charged with electricity as flashing eyes watched us from all sides and crept closer on all sides.

**_CRACK—BOOM_ **

A flash of lightning sliced through the air and our pegasus screamed. I yelped and swung my sword at the nearest spirit, which exploded into dust. The storm burst forth in a fury of wind and lightning that made it impossible to see and even harder to hear. Ally shouted, but I couldn’t hear her over the roar of the  wind. Another bolt of lightning slashed the air and I felt our pegasus spiral out of control.

We plummeted through the storm spirits, through the cloud cover, down over sprawling streets where night had almost fallen. Our pegasus beat the air furiously, but the feathers on her right wing were singed and stuck out at strange angles. One wing wasn’t enough to support the weight of both of us; we were going down fast. Ally gripped the the pegasus’s mane so tightly her knuckles turned the same color as the large concrete building building rushed up to meet us.

 _This is the way the world ends,_ I thought, _not with a bang, but with a splat._

Just before we crashed into the roof, our pegasus pulled up out of the dive and bucked furiously, sending the two of us tumbling. The landing knocked the wind out of me. I couldn’t see where Ally went, but I saw our pegasus bolt off into the evening sky, pursued by a trio of storm spirits.

When I could finally breathe again, I sat up with a groan.

“I thought horses were supposed to be loyal,” I moaned.

“And I thought Athena kids were supposed to be smart,” Ally snapped from another part of the roof where she lay on her stomach. Ally’s words didn’t hurt much, but that fall to the roof sure had. I rubbed the seat of my pants.

“Oof. I think I bruised my tailbone,” I said.

“Oh NO,” Ally rolled her eyes, “you know, I was really focusing more on the fact that you thought it was a good idea to _swordfight a cloud_ , almost painted the street with splattered demigod, and lost our ride, but stop the presses, people! He bruised his tailbone!” She rolled over and propped herself up into a sitting position. The slightly singed remains of the leather training harness still hung off her shoulders. Ally yanked them off and tossed them away.

“Now Thalia’s probably miles ahead of us with no way of knowing where we are, and we’re abandoned on a roof with no way to contact anybody,” Ally continued. “This quest is working out just freakin’ stellar. Thanks a million, Alex.”

“This isn’t my fault!” I protested.

“They wouldn’t have attacked us if you hadn’t attacked them first.”

“You don’t know that. Besides, it’s more than you would have done. You can’t even fight,” I growled. Ally gave me a look with more outrage than I knew could fit on one face. “Because you don’t have a weapon,” I added quickly. Still, I must have hit a nerve.

“Your face doesn’t have a weapon,” she grumbled, scooting to face away from me. I rolled my eyes.

“Why don’t we just send Thalia an Iris message and ask her to wait for us?” I suggested.

“No light, no Iris message,” Ally said flatly. An idea popped into my head.

“I have my reading flashlight!” I exclaimed.

“...Really?”

“Yeah, I do! It’s right here in my bag… Oh…”

“What?”

“It’s out of batteries,” I confessed.

“Figures,” Ally muttered. “Fine. It’s night anyway. We’ll do something in the morning.” She lay down with her back to me and her head resting on her back pack. She grabbed her knees and tugged them to her chest, curled into a tiny, pissed off ball.  

I sighed, then curled up on my own bag. The ground was too hard and the air was too cold, but even so I sank into sleep within minutes.

If I’d have known what kind of dreams I was going to have, I would have tried harder to stay awake.

* * *

           

I woke up on a park bench. I got my breakfast out of a trashcan outside a shopping center. My whole body ached with the legacy of nights spent asleep on sidewalks and benches. I entered the shopping center.

My vision was blurry with fatigue, but the names of stores didn’t sit still long enough for me to read them anyway. Like a zombie, I trudged through the masses of people to a set of bathrooms. A shock of indecision and fear I’ve never felt before shot through my stomach as I came to the divide between the men’s and women’s rooms. With a swell of guilt, I shouldered into the single family bathroom between them and locked the door behind me.

I turned on the sink and drank from the faucet. When I was done, I splashed some water on my face and wiped it off with a rough paper towel from the bathroom dispenser. Finally, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

Orion’s desolate blue eyes stared back at me. At the sight of my face, a wave of  emotion welled up inside me.

 _You’re disgusting,_ I thought. Sorrow, guilt, shame, hopelessness, misery threatened to overwhelm me. I had to turn away from the mirror. _You’re a disgrace. A disgrace. You shouldn’t exist._

I felt like I was drowning.

            “Wake up.”

            I felt like I was suffocating.

            “I said wake up.”

            I felt like I would never be happy again.

            “Alex!”

            My eyes snapped open. A cold sweat made the cold morning even less comfortable. Ally sat before me in her wheelchair, looking me over with a kind of disgust that could almost pass as concern.

            “S’wrong with you?” she asked. I shook my head.

            “Bad dream. Did you call Thalia?”

            “Not yet. Got a drachma?”

            I dug one out of my messenger bag and handed it to her. She pulled her prism out of her skirt pocket and positioned it on her armrest so that the sun shone through it and created a tiny rainbow. Ally dropped the drachma into the rainbow like a coin into a parking meter. It disappeared.

            “Thalia, daughter of Zeus,” she stated clearly.  The rainbow shimmered. A projection of Thalia the size of a smartphone screen appeared. As she flipped thoughtfully through a pamphlet of bus schedules, she yawned and caught sight of us.

            “Oh hey, you guys _aren’t_ dead,” she remarked casually.

            “Should we be?” I asked. She shrugged.

            “That’s what Chiron thought when your riderless horse made it back to camp,” Thalia said. “Where are you?”

            “On a roof,” I answered.

            “No dip, genius. I mean a roof _where_?”

            “Uh… You tell us,” Ally suggested. She scooped a palm under the Iris message and held it above her head. I glanced around and saw our emergency landing site for the first time in the light. It was a cute little town made of bricks and lampposts, like a historical district. We approached the edge of the roof and peered down at the streets below us. The building we stood on was a YMCA that overlooked a sort of town square. In the middle of the square was a marble statue of a man on a tall pedestal, along with a fountain and a couple of flagpoles. The building across the street sported a tall, chapel-like steeple.

            “Hey, Kennedy Square!” Thalia exclaimed. “I passed through there yesterday! I’m still in town, come meet me at the New Castle Center of Transit,” she said, waving away the Iris message.

            “What? Where?” I asked, but the Iris message had already disintegrated. “Oh… that’s fine. I guess we can always ask for directions.” I hitched my messenger bag higher on my shoulder. We traversed the entire perimeter of the roof before we found an unlocked door.

“It’s too bad we didn’t notice this last night. Sleeping inside would have been way warmer,” I complained, giving the door a yank.

            Actually, we’re pretty lucky we didn’t notice the door the night before. The second I opened it, something huge, fast, and full of teeth sprang out.


	21. Chapter 21- Allafare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex's intense knowledge of cats and J.R.R Tolkien come in handy when he and Allafare meet a sphinx on the roof of the YMCA.

Chapter 21

_Allafare_

 

            Alex moved aside just in time to dodge the sphinx that hurtled out of the YMCA door.  She had the brown hair and face of a pretty caucasian woman, but the body of a lion. She grinned, and it was clear she had the teeth of a lion, too.

            “Greetings, travelers,”  she purred, “Welcome to my domain.”

            “Your domain? This is a YMCA,” I said.

            “Cliff real estate is hard to come by. Nonetheless, this is my domain! To achieve safe passage, one of you must answer my riddles five. Should you fail, I will devour you. Which one of you will meet me in this challenge of wits?”

            “Not it,” I said.

            “Ally!” Alex cried. I shrugged.

            “Ya snooze, ya lose, dude. Besides, you’re an Athenian kid. You’re all school-y and stuff,” I pointed out, “riddles are right up your alley, right?”

            “Could we have have a minute?” Alex politely asked the sphinx.

            “Take all the time you need,” she grinned, settling back on her haunches. Alex pushed my chair a few feet away from the Sphinx and leaned in close to whisper to me frantically.

            “What makes you think I’m good at riddles?” he hissed.

            “Hey, unless she’s got questions about major league baseball trivia, I’m not gonna be any help, and you’re smart-ish or whatever,” I answered.

            “No I’m not.” His eyes grew wide with panic. “I just read a lot of books.”

            “So you learn a lot, right?”

            “I only read _fantasy!_ ”

            I swore under my breath. Alex, even in his distressed state, muttered “language” in return.

            “Excuse me, Miss Sphinx?” I called, waving one hand to get her attention, “Can this be a partner test?” The sphinx picked a piece of I’d-rather-not-guess-what out of her teeth with one claw.

“No.”

“Wait… wait, I have an idea,” Alex whispered. “You still have those magic stickers?”

“Yeah.” I patted my skirt pocket.

“Okay, so I’ll try to answer the riddles, and if I get one wrong and she tries to eat me, we can disappear back to Camp Half Blood,” he suggested. I scoffed.

“No way, José! If things go pear-shaped, you can bail, but I’ll take my chances with Hello Kitty. Like heck I’m coming back a failure from my first quest,” I growled. Alex looked like he really wanted to say something in reply, but he choked it back.

“Fine,” he agreed. That’s what I hated most about Alex: the way he was always so nice to me. I’d rather have somebody’s legitimate hate than their artificial sympathy, and since I’d never been anything but rude to Alex, his kindness couldn’t possibly be genuine. He was only being nice to seem nice. What a jerk.

Alex faced the sphinx and set his jaw.

“Alright, I’m ready. Ask me the riddles.”  The sphinx gave a steely smile and prowled around him in a circle as she spoke. I saw an immediate flaw in our plan: if she was between me and Alex when he had to get the heck out of dodge, he’d be sliced, diced, and served with rice before I could even think about getting a Hermes sticker anywhere near him. I hoped he was smarter than he looked.

“ _What has roots as nobody sees,_

_Is taller than trees,_

_Up, up it goes,_

_And yet never grows?_ ” purred the sphinx.

“A mountain,” Alex answered, almost immediately. He looked surprisedthat he knew the answer. The sphinx mostly looked annoyed.

“Correct,” she said.  

“ _Voiceless it cries,_

_Wingless flutters,_

_Toothless bites,_

_Mouthless mutters._ ”

            “The wind,” he said. Behind Alex’s grey eyes, I could see the gears turning. A smile tugged at one corner of his mouth. The sphinx raked her claws across the roof in frustration. _He’s good,_ I thought.

            “ _It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,_

_Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt._

_It lies behind stars and under hills,_

_And empty holes it_ _—_ _”_

“Darkness,” Alex interrupted, face plastered with a lopsided, victorious smile. “And I’m gonna go out on a limb and say the answer to the fourth one is ‘fish’, and the answer to the fifth one is ‘time.’”

“How did you KNOW that?” the sphinx growled, thrashing her tail in outrage.

“How _did_ you know that?” I asked in wonder. Alex was full-on giggling now, holding his sides and everything. He reached into his satchel and brought out a small green book.

“You didn’t make those up, those are all the same riddles from _The Hobbit_!” he laughed. “I’ve read it at least a dozen times!” A low, ominous growl sounded from the throat of the sphinx as she dropped into a predatory stance.

            “That’s CHEATING,” she hissed. Alex had just enough time to throw his arms up before she pounced on him and slammed him into the roof top. I became painfully aware that I did not, in fact, have a weapon. Alex couldn’t even reach for his sword; both hands were on the sphinx’s throat, barely keeping her ugly, snarling teeth away from his face.

            Just when it looked like the sphinx would slice into Alex’s throat, she paused. Her pupils dilated to the size of Girl Scout cookies.

            “What manner of sorcery…?”

            Her nose started twitching like a rabbit in a room full of Trix yogurt. Suddenly she was sniffing furiously at his bag and clothes, practically shoving her face in his armpits.

            “Whoa _—_ WHOA, lady, if you’re gonna kill me, at least give me my personal space,” he protested, still holding out his arms in a defensive position.

            “What is that _intoxicating smell?_ ” she demanded.

            “I don’t know what you’re talking ab _—_ ” Alex’s hand slipped into his jacket pocket and realization dawned on him. “Oh. Did you mean… _this?_ ” he pulled out a pair of multicolored felt mice. The sphinx froze. “You want it?” Alex asked again. He dangled the mice enticingly. The sphinx followed the movement. “You want it? You want it?” Alex injected his voice with excitement. The sphinx twitched every time he shook them. “Well GO GET IT!” Alex pitched the mice sideways in a throw that even I had to admire. They cleared the edge of the roof. The sphinx yowled and jetted after them in a single bound. By the time I crossed the roof and peered over the edge, there was nothing on the sidewalk but a couple of mice and a lot of gold dust.

            Alex was still lying flat on the roof.

            “Top shelf catnip” he muttered, winded. “Bounce’s favorite.” He lay there a second more. “I miss her so much,” his voice cracked.

            “Are you crying?”

            _Sniff._

            “Dude, stop.”

            Alex sat up and wiped at his face with the sleeve of his jacket.

            “You’re making this weird.”

            He broke into sobs.

            “Sh _—_ sh _—_ she’s my _baby_ and she’s _—_ she’s home alone because my mom works all day and _—_ and she doesn’t know where I am and she’s never b _—_ been alone in that big apartment and I _—_ I just _—_ “ I have no idea what else he said, because he wailed and hid his face in his hands.

            They don’t prepare you for this kind of thing in hero training.

            “Okay, um, you… you just keep doing what you’re doing, champ. Uh… let it all out?” I tried. Alex’s shoulders heaved with silent bawling. Soon, his blubbering faded into hiccups. Finally, with a big sigh, he leaned his head in his hands and stared at the ground.

“Y’alright?” I asked.

“Sorry,” he muttered, sniffing and wiping his nose on his jacket sleeve.

“You want a granola bar?”

He nodded.

We pawed through our respective bags for the granola bars Hermes had given us (something called Necta-Grain, which was made of granola, chocolate chips, and just a dash of nectar. It didn’t taste half bad and took away the stiffness of sleeping outside.)

            We took a staff elevator to the bottom floor of the YMCA and exited onto the street that ran along Kennedy Square. It was still early in the morning, probably no later than nine. Alex tapped the shoulders of people on the sidewalk and asked with many a please-thanks-pardon-me how to get to the New Castle Center of Transit. We learned we were in a town called New Castle, Pennsylvania, and that the Center of Transit was only a few blocks away. It took us half an hour to walk there.

            Outside the NCCoT, Thalia sprawled comfortably over a park bench and polished a huge metal shield with a seriously ugly face imprinted in it. Like, I’m talking mirror-shattering ugly. Just looking at it made me uneasy. The Mist flickered around the shield so that sometimes Thalia was visibly holding the enormous metal disc, but sometimes appeared to be hunched over a laptop. Even so, mortals on the sidewalk gave her space, as if the Mist couldn’t completely mask the anxiety and fear the shield radiated. 8-Track sat alert and loyal at Thalia’s heels. All in all, she looked ridiculously cool and a little bit dangerous. Hashtag goals.

            Thalia glanced up and waved us over.

            “What took you?” she asked, sounding mildly inconvenienced.

            “ _Anemoi Thuellai_ ,” Alex droned wearily.

            “And a Sphinx,” I agreed.

            “And asking for directions,” he added.

            Thalia looked back and forth between us and snickered. She tapped the shield and retracted it into a silver bracelet that would have gone nicely with her Lieutenant circlet (which, I noticed, she wasn’t wearing).  

            “What’s so funny?” Alex asked.

            “You guys look like hell,” she grinned.

            “Feel like it, too,” I muttered.

            “You’ve got some first-quest blues, that’s all. No worries. Once you hit your seventh near-death experience, you start getting used to it,” she assured us.

            “Goody,” Alex said.

            “I can’t track Orion any further than this,” Thalia began. “He got this far in the last two days, possibly by magical means, more likely by hitch-hiking. Then, as far as I can tell, he took the bus from here that would take him the farthest away.”

            “So what? Just track the bus,” Aex suggested.

            “Can’t. The smell of the diesel is too much for 8-Track’s nose. It’s one thing on the highway where it’s diluted, but following that close behind one vehicle… she can’t handle it,” Thalia shook her head. 8-Track flicked one ear in response.

            “I thought you said this was your best wolf?” I said.

            “No, I said if anyone could find Orion, it would be her.”

            “How is that different?”

            “The point is,” Thalia said, “There was only one interstate bus leaving from this station within the window of time Orion would have been here.” She flicked her wrist and spread out three bus tickets in a fan. “From here on out, we follow on foot.”

            “Where are we going?” Alex asked.

            Thalia’s face darkened.

            “Ohio.”

 


	22. Chapter 22-Allafare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thalia confronts Orion in a museum in Cleveland.

Chapter 22

_Allafare_

 

            As we boarded the bus via the handicap ramp, the driver briefly tried to tell us that no pets were allowed on board, but I whipped up a couple of tears real quick and said that 8-Track was a service animal. The driver let us on without further question. Sucker.

The ride from New Castle to Cleveland was only a few short hours long. Bet it seemed longer for Thalia, though. She quickly realized that as the oldest, she was the designated adult of our quest. On an unrelated note, halfway through Ohio I asked if we could stop at Cedar Point after we picked up Orion and Alex and I started pounding on the back of the bus seat in front of us chanting “Cedar Point, Cedar Point,” loudly until Thalia told us not to make her turn this bus around so help her god and then sat between us because we “needed to be separated.”

            With its parks, gardens, and sidewalks, Cleveland, Ohio would have been something to see in summer. This late in the autumn, though, it was mostly grey.

            “Where to from here?” Alex asked. “If I were on the run, I’d take the next bus out of here as far as I could.”

            “Buses cost money,” Thalia noted. “Money and time, both of which he doesn’t have. This is the end of the trail. He’s gotta be here. But where…?”

            “In hiding?” Alex guessed. “In disguise?”

            I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. _This is a job for a con woman. Lucky they got me._

            “That ain’t how folks work under pressure, guys. He’s just been awake for two days straight. He’s scared. He’s alone. He’s highly suggestible. He ain’t thinking in terms of miles and hours. He’s working on pure, frightened, animalistic instinct.You’re in a strange town away from home with no idea what to do next. What’s the first thing you see getting off the bus?” I prompted.

            “A public bathroom?” Thalia guessed.

            “A rack of brochures,” said Alex.

            “A restaurant? A hotel? A—”

            “No, it’s a rack of brochures,” Alex interrupted. “I saw them on our way out.” His eyes were weirdly glazed over, as if he was reading something nobody else could see. He almost walked into a lamppost before Thalia tugged him out of the way.

            “What do they say?” Thalia urged.

            “Cleveland Museum of Natural History… Cleveland Botanical Gardens… _A Christmas Story_ House Tours… Rock and Roll Hall of Fame—”

            “There,” Thalia interjected so suddenly that Alex snapped out of his daze. “If he’s anywhere, he’s there,” she said with solid confidence. “What’s the address, Alex?”

            Alex phased out again.

            “1100 East 9th Street.”

            Luckily, Alex had also caught a glimpse of a downtown taxi service number on his way out of the bus station. He used some of the cash from his mom to catch us a cab (which didn’t run freely on the streets like they did in Chicago or New York.) Every time we entered or exited a vehicle, I silently thanked James for the collapsability of my chair.

            The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame featured an enormous glass pyramid as its entrance. Inside, Alex paid for our admission at the front desk and passed 8-Track off as a service dog again.

            We stepped out of earshot of the security lady at the front desk to form a plan.

            “Ally, you’re disreputable,” Alex said, “any chance you know how to hack into a security system?” he asked.

            “Alex, you’re a son of Athena. Any chance you know anything useful? Oh, that’s right, I forgot, you only know the name of all the hobbits and the entire _Magyk the Gathering_ handbook by heart, ” I answered.

            “You’re both twelve years old and awful and I would fire you if I could,” Thalia interrupted. “Now shut up and watch how it’s done. You might learn something.” She snapped her fingers, then turned and walked back up to the front desk. It was funny, though. She looked, I dunno… older? Definitely older, and more respectable. I blinked, and the image of a taller, adultier Thalia flickered over the punkrock delinquent Thalia we’d come to know and tolerate.

            “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Alex muttered.

            “Whoa… the Mist.”

            The security woman acted like she’d never seen Thalia before in her life. Her eyes sort of glazed over as Thalia gestured at her computer screen, and I caught the words “security evaluation.” Thalia shot us a wink and waved us over. Adult Thalia flickered like static.

            “Can you pull up last night’s security footage and check for anything unusual?” Thalia prompted as Alex, 8-Track and I came around the desk to view the security guard’s computer screen. She quickly tapped at the keyboard and pulled up a window of time-stamped security footage in a three-by-three grid. Each square showed footage from a different camera.

            “Nothing noteworthy from yesterday,” the security woman said. “We spot-check the footage from each day just in case. Wait a minute…”

            “What is it?” Thalia asked, her adult image flickering again. The security woman clicked on the video feed in the upper left corner. The upper left square filled the screen. My heart leapt into my chest.

            The video feed showed a figure leaning up against a door labeled “EMPLOYEES ONLY.” There was no mistaking it. Nobody could quite pull off the on-the-run-and-haven’t-showered-in-a-week look quite like Orion. He was trying (and failing) to act natural. His eyes darted quickly over the camera. Just then, a field-trip sized group of tourists hustled past, giving Orion the opportunity to slip into the door unnoticed.

            “Hey, that kid can’t be in there!” The security guard said. Thalia snapped her fingers.

            “What kid?” she asked. The security guard blinked.

            “Wha… huh?” she mumbled.

            “Fast forward,” Thalia demanded. In a daze, the security woman obliged, zooming through hours of security footage in fast-motion. Orion never came back out. Which meant…

            “He’s still in there,” I muttered. Thalia turned to the security woman.

            “Thank you very much, you’ve passed your evaluation. I wouldn’t be surprised if they promoted you. One last thing, make sure to turn off all the security systems tonight. For, uh—”

            “Cleaning,” Alex interrupted. _Idiot,_ I thought.

            “Sure thing,” the security woman replied dreamily. Thalia elbowed me and Alex with a very clear _let’s get the heck outta dodge_ expression and hurried us away into the museum. As soon as we rounded the corner out of sight of the front desk, Adult Thalia flickered and disappeared completely. Normal Thalia leaned against the wall with sigh of exhaustion.

            “I’ve never used the Mist like that before,” she admitted. “That was exhausting.”

            “That was amazing,” Alex gaped.

            “Orion’s still here,” she said, gritting her teeth. “He has to come out some time. My guess is at night. That’s just how we— how he operates.”

“So we wait?” Alex guessed.

“So we wait,” Thalia said.

 

* * *

 

            If I never have to spend three hours hiding in the handicap stall of a public bathroom ever again, I can die happy. Alex, Thalia and I wandered around the museum for a few hours before holing up in hiding places to wait it out until after closing. Thalia and 8-Track were expertly concealed in a supply closet. Alex and I got the pleasure of hiding in our respective bathrooms. Glamorous. At least Alex had a book. I just had my thoughts and the stall graffiti to keep me company.

            Hours later, when the bathroom lights had been turned off and the last of the custodial staff had disappeared, I finally emerged. Alex was already out.

            “Is everybody gone?” I asked.

            “I think so.”

            That was all we said. Breaking the silence felt unnatural. We ventured out into the museum where Thalia and 8-Track were waiting for us. The strange blueish-white emergency lights of the exhibits gave the place just enough light to make creepy shadows. I shuddered. I hate museums.

            “Let’s split up. You two go together. I’ll take 8-Track,” Thalia ordered. _This is my quest,_ _not yours,_ I thought, but she and the wolf were gone before I could say a word.

            “I don’t need your help, Alex. Let’s split up,” I said.

            “Uh… sure. No problem. Why wouldn’t I want to be alone in the huge, dark museum at night?” Alex gulped.

            I didn’t stick around to give him an answer. Truth be told, I was darn tired of taking a backseat on my own quest, and secretly I wanted to be the one to find Orion. Alex was right, though. The Hall of Fame really was huge and dark. I started wishing I had called dibs on 8-Track.

            I didn’t see him the first three times I passed the Aerosmith exhibit. Maybe he wasn’t there, or maybe he was so still I didn’t notice him. Either way, the fourth time I passed it he was there.

            He looked smaller and younger than I remembered, sitting on the floor with his knees pulled up to his chest and his backpack nearby. The emergency lights of the Aerosmith display fell across his face like moonlight. He could have been Phoebus, he looked so young.

            I realized I had no idea what to say or do.

            “Isn’t it something,” Orion said quietly. I couldn’t tell if he was talking to himself, or if he even knew I was there. “ Isn’t it something that nobody ever says they hate music? You might hate country, or classical, or an album, or a song, but nobody hates music. It’s part of us. It’s a human need, like food. Sometimes I think I could live off it. And these people… look at these people. People whose music touches the core of millions, people who have hacked the very essence of humanity, what it means to be alive. Isn’t that… Isn’t that _spectacular?_ Don’t you just want to be one? Don’t you just want to create something that makes somebody else’s life better?” he breathed.

            “When did you get so words-fancy?” I asked, finding my voice again.

            “It just happens to me sometimes,” he admitted. He fell silent again.

            “Orion, we gotta go. You’re in a lot of trouble. We came all this way, me and Alex and Thalia—”

            “Thalia?” Whatever romantic trance Orion had been in evaporated in seconds. “Th—Thalia is here?” He rocketed to his feet, trembling. “No, no she can’t see me like this, I—I can’t—”

            An Exit door on the other side of the room swung open with a loud _BANG_. 8-Track pulled at her leash, barking and howling. On the other end of that leash was Thalia,

one hundred percent concentrated rage in combat boots, followed closely by Alex. Orion groaned in despair. Thalia shouted Orion’s name. Orion froze. Then he ran.

            At least, he tried to. Quick as lightning, Thalia summoned her bow, drew three silver arrows from an unseen quiver and fired. They pierced through the cuffs of Orion’s jeans and into the floor. He stumbled mid-run and crashed to the ground.

            “TRAITOR,” Thalia roared, barely restraining the still barking 8-Track as she stormed across the room with all the glory of a daughter of Zeus.  Orion desperately pulled at the arrows in his jeans, to no avail. “Do you know what they’re saying about you? Saying what you’ve become?” She hissed.

            “Please, I, I can explain,” he stuttered, eyes wide with terror.

            “ _Explain?_ I don’t need you to explain! Is it true or not? I want you to tell me straight to my face that you could do this,” Thalia hissed, standing just far enough away so that 8-Track’s slobbering jaws couldn’t sink into his leg.

            “I—I—”

            “ _Is it true???_ ”

            Orion stopped struggling and cast his gaze to the ground in shame.

            “I never meant for this to happen,” he said. Thalia looked like one of those silver arrows had just been shot into her heart. She shook her head.

            “I can’t believe this. You… you’ve always been loyal,” she seethed. Orion couldn’t look at her.

            “I didn’t want this,” he said quietly, his voice cracking. “It… it was an accident.”

            “An accident? You accidentally conspired against Apollo, stole a powerful weapon, plotted the downfall of your friends, practically your _family_? That was an _accident_?” she cried in outrage. Orion blinked.

            “Wha?”

            _Not so words-fancy now, are we?_ I thought.

            “Don’t play dumb with me!” Thalia lunged forward with 8-Track again. Orion scrambled out of reach.

            “Wait, I’m lost. What about Apollo?”

            “You just confessed!” Thalia growled.

            “Not to that! I—I genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about,” Orion pleaded.

            “Well what did you think I meant?” 8-Track was now on her hind legs, straining against the leash and whining.

            “Uh...uh…” Orion gave a vague gesture to all of himself. Thalia raised an eyebrow dubiously. “Wait, just wait a second, wait,” he begged. “This? This is my fault, yes, I confess to this, but… Apollo? A weapon? I swear, I didn’t have anything to do with that. Please, Thal, you gotta believe me,” he added quietly. Thalia looked him over, sprawled helplessly on the Hall of Fame floor, four inches away from becoming dog chow.

            “Alright,” she said, “I believe you.”

            “You do?” Orion’s voice bled relief.

            “Yeah.” Thalia grinned wickedly. “Get him,” she ordered, and dropped 8-Track’s leash. The wolf lunged forward, and Orion screamed.

 


	23. Chapter 23-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex and Allafare finally learn the truth about Orion, but Alex overhears something that makes him think there might be more than Orion and Thalia are willing to share.

Chapter 23

_Alex_

 

            8-Track jumped on Orion and tore his face off. I couldn’t look, but I could still hear him scream.

            “No… no, please!” he cried. Oh gods, I felt sick to my stomach. Thalia laughed, reveling in her apparent revenge. Orion...giggled? In hysteria, maybe? That didn’t make sense. I worked up the nerve to look at him again.

            Oops, my mistake. 8-Track wasn’t tearing Orion’s face off at all. She was attacking him with big, slobbery puppy kisses.

            “8-Track, no!” he cried again, but he was laughing. He hugged the wolf around the neck and she whined excitedly, wagging her tail and burying her snout in the crook of his shoulder. Thalia pulled the silver arrows out of Orion’s pant legs.

            “I thought you were dead,” Thalia confessed, offering him a hand.

            “Well… I’m not,” he hesitated awkwardly before taking it.

            “Good. That means I get to kill you myself,” she growled, pulling him to his feet and into a headlock at lightning speed. She ripped off his beanie and ground her knuckles into his head, delivering the most merciless noogie I’ve ever seen. “You thought you could just leave a note and leave??? That nobody would be _worried?_ That people wouldn’t _talk?_ ” she seethed around clenched teeth. _He doesn’t like to be touched,_ I remembered. Now didn’t seem like the time to mention it.

            “Oh god, Alex, help!” Orion moaned.

            “What did you _do_ to your _hair_?” Thalia demanded.

            “I cut it myself.”

            “With what, a weed-whacker?”

            “Uncle!”

            “‘Uncle’ doesn’t mean peanuts, you little mortal punk!”

            “Uh, sorry, don’t mean to bring your ABC Family reunion to a halt,” Ally interrupted, “But I’m pretty sure he’s not mortal. You have to be a demigod to enter Camp Half Blood,” she pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest.

            “...Or a Hunter,” I said, realization dawning. Orion wiggled out of Thalia’s grasp, his glasses askew. He swiped his hat off the floor and shoved it over his choppy, unfortunate mess of dark brown hair. When he straightened up besides Thalia, there was no mistaking it.

            His ski jacket was dirty and faded, but it was the same silver jacket Thalia and all the other Hunters wore. His combat skills, his archery, his lack of an Olympian parent, it all made sense now. Only one thing didn’t line up.

            “I thought only girls could be Hunters?” I asked. Orion opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off right away by Ally.

            “More important question, you been on the run for a year and you’re calling yourself _Orion Hunter?_ Your alias is your real name followed by your ex-occupation?” She shook her head in disbelief. “Amazing. How have you survived this long?”  

            Orion shrugged.“I never run into monsters when I travel on my own. Just luck, I guess,” he replied.

            As if tempting fate, a low growl rumbled through the room.

            “What was that?” I unsheathed my sword. Orion sheepishly raised his hand.

            “I haven’t eaten real food in...uh…” He straightened his glasses. “a little bit.”

            “Let’s beat it,” Ally said, “This place gives me the creeps anyway, and you got a lot of explaining to do.”

            “Oh, wait, do you guys have any money?” Orion asked. “There’s something in the giftshop I wanna get.”

            _Unbelievable,_ I thought. I didn’t want to admit it, but we didn’t have much money left. The most we had was in drachmas, and maybe enough food money for the next three days. There would be no more public transportation or museum visits, that’s for sure. Before I could answer, Ally beat me to it.

            “Whatever man, just take it. We’ve earned it.”

            “That’s stealing,” I muttered.

            “It’s not ‘stealing,’” she said, making finger quotation marks in the air, “It’s a stupid tax. If you’re dumb enough to leave your gift shop unlocked, you deserve to lose some merchandise.”

            That logic made me uncomfortable, but I decided that that wasn’t a battle I was willing to fight today. I yawned. I was tired, starving, and emotionally spent.

            “Alright, Let’s go.”

            On the way out, Orion zipped into the gift shop and came back out with a small white box that he shoved into his backpack. Then we were out on the streets again. Thalia took the lead, followed by Ally and me, while Orion trailed behind with 8-Track at his side. It was a lot colder outside than I remembered. Once again, I had no idea where we were supposed to spend the night.

            “Let’s just look for some 24-hour joint where we can grab a bite,” Thalia suggested. Nobody disagreed.

It felt like we had walked an hour in silence before we stopped in front of a 24-hour cafe. It’s brightly lit sign read “Night Owl Coffee.” A much smaller sign posted in the window said “Pets welcome!” with a clipart photo of a dog and a cat sharing a frappuccino.

“Hey, I think I got a  giftcard for this place,” Ally said. “Let’s check it out.”

Inside, she ordered four hot chocolates and four cookies the size of CDs from an unenthusiastic greasy-haired guy behind the counter. My stomach growled appreciatively. For the cookies, I mean. Not the guy. That guy seriously needed a shower (not that I had room to talk).

We took a seat at a table for four in the furthest back corner of the cafe, pushing one of the four chairs aside so that Ally could pull up next to me.

“You’re a Hunter,” I stated in wonder. Orion nodded. “How… how long?” I asked.

“Twenty years,” he said.

“How old are you?”

“Still twelve.”

            “Dang, you’ve been twelve for twenty years and your voice still hasn’t dropped?” said Ally. Orion’s cheeks turned pink. I elbowed Allafare under the table.

“When’s your birthday?” I asked. Orion screwed up his face in thought.

“I forget,” he answered. Ally looked like that was the saddest thing she’d ever heard.

“Alright, start at the beginning. What’s your story?” I demanded as Orion scarfed down his cookie in three bites. He shook his head, wiping crumbs off his face with the back of his hand.

“Where do I begin, man?” he answered around a mouthful of chocolate chips. “You go first. How did you guys find me?”

Ally and I launched into a mutual explanation of our quest so far from start to finish, including the meeting held by the Hunters, the prophecy, the storm spirits, crashing the pegasus, the sphynx (Ally graciously left out the part about me crying, while Orion half-smiled and muttered “That sounds _cat_ astrophic”), the bus ride, and finally, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“And now we’re here,” Ally finished.

“One thing I don’t understand though. If you didn’t have a part in Apollo’s disappearance, then why are you on the run in the first place?” I asked. “...Orion?”

But I was too late. Orion, glasses askew and head rested in one hand, had fallen asleep with the straw from his hot cocoa still in his mouth. I guess it hadn’t been an easy week for him, either. Thalia sighed in exasperation.

“This place is 24-hours, right? Let’s sleep in shifts until they kick us out. You guys keep watch first. Wake us up in a couple of hours,” Thalia suggested.

“Fine by me,” Ally agreed, although she sounded a little miffed about being told what to do. Thalia crossed her arms on the table and put her head down. Within minutes, she was snoring lightly.

I stifled a yawn and gave my head a little shake to keep myself awake.

“I’m gonna get us something caffeinated,” Ally said. She left the table and came back with two vanilla-frappe-hazelnut-double-whip-something-or-others.

“Thanks,” I said. She grunted in reply. My eyes felt heavy and everything ached. “In the past week,” I droned in a deadpan voice, “We have been attacked by storm spirits, crashed a pegasus, almost been eaten by a sphinx, and spent the rest of the time riding a bus with decidedly sticky seats. We have almost died several times, and I have not seen a shower since we left camp.”

“And you’re having the time of your life,” Ally guessed.

“I know, I love it,” I grinned.

“It’s all those fantasy books. Gotcha itching for something more exciting than algebra class,” Ally said.

“That’s not it. I just… never really had friends before,” I confessed.

“I’m not your friend.”

“Yeah, you are.”

“You’re only nice to me because you feel sorry for me.”

“That’s not true.”

“Is so. That’s the only reason anybody’s nice to me,” she argued. I drummed my fingers against the side of my coffee cup.

“Hmmm.”

“What?”

“No, no, it’s nothing. Just a theory,” I sipped my coffee.

“Yeah right. What?”

“You’re always angry because you think people can’t see you as anything other than a girl in a wheelchair. But maybe, maybe the problem is that _you_ don’t see yourself as anything but a girl in a wheelchair.”

Ally was quiet for a long time.

“That’s stupid. Drink your coffee.”

I smiled.

 

* * *

 

_Oh please, please, please don’t let it by my shift yet,_ I thought. It couldn’t be my turn to sit watch yet, I felt like I had barely closed my eyes! I kept my eyes closed and willed myself to fall back asleep. I was about to accept my fate when something interesting caught my ear. On the other side of the table, Orion and Thalia conversed in hushed tones. I listened intently, eyes still shut tight.

“How long have you known?” I heard Orion ask quietly.

“A while,” Thalia replied.

“Is it… obvious?”

“No! ...Maybe. I don’t know,” she admitted. He sighed mournfully.

“How could this happen? Why did I let this happen? I never wanted this,” he said.

“Orion… I know what you’re going through—” Thalia started, but Orion gave a short, hysterical laugh that cut her off.

“Do you? Do you really, Thalia? Do you know what it’s like to sit with people you consider closer than family, hearing them tell ghost stories and then seeing yourself become the thing they tell stories about? Do you? You were a pine tree once, but I don’t quite think that qualifies!” He gave another nervous laugh. “I am a disgrace.”

“Lady Artemis might have let you stay. She knows you, even better than she knows me. She knows you’re loyal. You didn’t have to run.”

“That’s not why I did. I ran because I couldn’t tell her. The last girl to keep a secret from her got turned into a bear, Thal! I—I tried. The words got stuck in my throat, I felt like I was gonna be sick, all I could imagine was her disappointment… I can’t. I can’t. Ican’tIcan’tIcan’tIcan’tI—”

“What about _them_ , Orion? They’re your friends now too. You have to tell them.”

“I can’t,” he whispered again. “I can’t.”

“You can’t keep running from this.”

“I can’t.”

Until morning, that’s all I heard him say. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t.

 


	24. Chapter 24-Allafare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids make a deal with Nemesis in order to find Apollo.

Chapter 24

_Allafare_

 

In the morning I felt rested, but achey as all get out.

“I feel like a chiropractor’s field day,” I groaned, stretching.  Thalia and Alex were already awake and busy clearing off the many, many cups and napkins from night before. Thalia shook Orion, who awoke with a jolt.

“A-murnin,” he babbled.

“Morning,” Alex replied. He shot Orion a suspicious glance behind his back. _What’s that all about?_ I wondered.

Luckily, nobody had kicked us out of the cafe. And, bonus, I still had a whopping 26 cents left on my giftcard. Score.

“Thank the gods this is over,” Thalia said as we exited the cafe into the cold wind. “Alex, do we have enough bus fare to get the five of us home?” She asked.

_Uh oh…_ Queue that sinking feeling in my stomach.

“...We can’t go home,” I realized.

“Why not?” asked Thalia, “We found Orion, and we know he’s innocent. We’re done here.”

“Oh... oh no, she’s right,” Alex said. I could tell he had just had the same thought. “It doesn’t matter if he’s innocent.”

I told Thalia about our encounter with Hermes before we left for our quest and how he told us the gods were looking for someone to blame. “If we go back there, Orion’s toast,” I finished. All the color drained from Orion’s face.

“What… what do we do?” He said. All three of us looked up at Thalia, our designated adult. Even 8-Track looked at her with her head cocked to one side, like _Seriously? You’re gonna say no to a bunch of twelve year olds on the brink of tears?_

Thalia caved.

“Let me see your prism,” she sighed, “I’ll make a call.”

She dropped a drachma into the prism’s rainbow and said “Eleanor, Camp Half Blood” loud and clear. A flickering, unclear image of the girl with a Katniss braid appeared in Thalia’s palm.

“Hey, El!” Thalia called. The image wavered in her hand.

“Thalia? Is that you?” replied the girl. Her voice popped with static.

“Yeah. Hey, listen, uh... change of plans. We’ve got Orion, but we’re not coming home right away. We’ve gotta make a detour.”

“You what? I can hardly hear you!” replied Eleanor. Every other word was cut short.

“We’re not coming home!” Thalia shouted.

“Thalia, listen, there wa—anslatio—er—cy,” Eleanor said. The image fizzed.

“What?”

“ _Translation error,_ ” Eleanor called urgently, “ _In the prophecy, th_ — _”_

The image shorted out altogether.

“Bad connection,” Thalia muttered. Then she turned to us. “Alright geniuses. I hope you have a backup plan. Ally, this is your quest, isn’t it? Don’t you have any bright ideas?” She asked. Alex made a choking sound.

“Whoa, okay, hold up,” he said. “Can I say something that might not be that nice?”

            _Probably not,_ I thought.

            “Whatever,” Thalia said.

            “That was a total Gandalf move, Thalia. You’ve kind of been Gandalfing this whole quest,” he said. Thalia stared at him blankly. He rolled his eyes, which in Alex-speak is almost as extreme as swearing. “You know how in _The Hobbit_ and _Lord of the Rings_ , Gandalf always takes charge of the fellowship unless there’s a difficult decision to make, then he always says ‘well Frodo/Bilbo is the leader of this quest, it’s his decision’ so that when everything falls to pieces later he can always be like ‘well Frodo/Bilbo made the wrong decision’?”

            I shot Thalia a look.

            “...You guys have at least seen the movies, right?”

Nobody answered. Alex rubbed his temples exasperatedly.

“Nevermind. Let’s just try to be team players, okay?”

“To be fair, it is my quest,” I piped up.  Alex gave me this dismayed look like I had missed the point completely. Well I didn’t. The point was clearly that he was a huge loser.

“So what do you suggest we do?” he asked.

“What if… we find Apollo ourselves?” Orion asked. I almost forgot he was there. He had been petting 8-Track awkwardly the entire time, the way you do when you’re at a friend’s house and the friend starts to fight with their parents so you have to hang out with their dog until it’s over.

            “It makes sense,” he continued. “Just look at the prophecy. _‘Blood of owl, thief, and day,’_ that’s you guys, ‘ _will quest to the chasm where serpents lay.’_ We haven’t done that yet, so the quest can’t be over. ‘ _The swallowed god again shall rise_ ,’ hopefully that’s Apollo. _‘Revealed will be the liar’s disguise...’”_

            “That could be anything,” Alex jumped in. Orion tugged at his bracelet.

            “All I’m saying is it seems like we’re _supposed_ to go find Apollo. And hey, maybe with a little luck—”

            “Aren’t you kids tired of waiting around for luck?” asked a voice out of nowhere that gave the four of us a collective heart-attack. A woman with short, dark, curly hair and a red leather jacket stood behind us on the sidewalk where she had just appeared out of thin air. She looked familiar in an uncomfortable way.

“Got a light?” she asked Orion, twirling a cigarette between her fingers. Orion shook his head. “Pity.” She snapped, and the cigarette disappeared in a trail of smoke. Thalia squinted.

            “...Hera?” Thalia asked uncertainly. The woman laughed wolfishly.

            “Boy, have you got your lines crossed. I’ve got a nasty tendency to appear as someone you want to take revenge on.” She grinned like she was pretty pleased with how nasty that tendency was.

“She looks like my mother,” Orion shuddered. Where did I know that face from?

            “Put the sword away, kid. I’m here to help,” she interrupted my train of thought. I realized that Alex’s hand was on the hilt of his sword, but he regretfully released it. “Here’s the deal. I was in town for a blackjack competition when I heard about your little plight, and as the fates would have it, you’ve got something I want.”

            “Like what?” I asked.

            “Sacrifice. I’m in the market for items of emotional value.”

            “Such as…?”

            “Your wheelchair.” she smirked. Right then I recognized her golden-hazel eyes and smug grin and unforgiving jawline. She looked exactly like Ryder Davis, if he had been thirty years older and a woman. I gripped the armrests of my chair.

            “Get lost.”

            “I always make good on my deals,” she swore. “Give me this and I’ll give you something just as good in return. I am the goddess of balance, after all.”

            “Nemesis,” Alex realized.

            “The one and only.”

            “I don’t know about this, guys,” Thalia said. “It’s never a good idea to mess around with strange goddesses.”

            “Did Artemis tell you that?” Nemesis asked, raising an eyebrow. _Oh, snap_.

            “Why should we make a deal with you?” Alex asked. “Don’t your deals always come with unintended consequences?”

            Nemesis dismissed  Alex with a wave of her hand. “Depends who you talk to. Besides, I’m the only one who can tell you where Apollo is. Unless you speak Parseltongue.” She smirked at Alex. “That one’s on the house, so you know I’m good for my word.” I had no idea what she meant. “Tell you what, I’ll even give you back your old chair in addition to Apollo’s whereabouts. This is a limited-time offer, kid. I’d take it,” she pressed.

            It did seem like a good deal. Objects of emotional value? How could something I’d only had for a week have emotional value? And if what Nemesis was saying was true, then we _had_ to make a deal with her. Easy-peasy, the answer was clear. But… I thought of James, bouncing on her toes and watching the clouds or excitedly spinning the chair around for the first time as it glittered in the low light of her workshop, and the words got caught in my throat.

            “I—”

            “Wait!” Orion interjected. “What if… what if we trade you something else?” he asked, looking a little sick. He gulped. “Take my jacket instead,” he offered. Nemesis scoffed.

            “I don’t want your filthy…Oh. Well, isn’t that interesting,” she muttered to herself. She grabbed Orion’s arm and pinched the fabric of his jacket between her fingers. “That’s a security blanket at a whole new level, isn’t it? You got issues, you know that kid?” Orion steeled his face.

            “Do you want it or not?” he prompted. Nemesis snickered.

            “Sure thing, sunshine. You got a deal.” She stuck out her hand and Orion shook it. Then he unzipped his jacket, wiggled out of it, and handed it to her folded neatly. With a wave of her hand, Nemesis made a postcard appear out of thin air. She handed it to Orion.

            “Pleasure doing business with you,” she grinned, tucking his jacket underarm and mounting a motorcycle that hadn’t been there a second ago. The engine roared and she was gone.

            But I wasn’t focused on that. I was more preoccupied with the fact that, under his jacket, Orion was far smaller than you would expect. His shoulders weren’t as broad, and his body was more slender. He wore a dirty white t-shirt that was a size too big for him and hung too loose around the neck. Inside the collar of the t-shirt where his shoulder met his neck, the strap of a grey sports bra was clearly visible.

            “Uh… Orion?” Alex said. “...You’re a girl?”

 


	25. Chapter 25-Orion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tensions mount between Alex and Orion. The kids crash in a greenhouse that's meaner than it looks.

Chapter 25

Orion

 

            Oh no. I  felt like somebody grabbed my rib cage and balled it up in a fist. My throat went dry.  

            “I’m, this is, I don’t—” Now would be a good time to get words-fancy, as Ally called it. No such luck. Alex held his head like he was having a migraine.

            “Oh my gods, he’s a _girl_ ,” he groaned.

            “Alex, stop,” Ally snapped. “He’s still a boy.”

            “I mean, clearly she’s not!” Alex said hysterically. “Do I have to explain the difference to you?” He shook his head. “This makes sense. That’s what the prophecy meant. ‘Reveal the liar’s disguise.’ You’ve been disguising yourself as a boy this whole time.”

            That really didn’t sit right with me. I looked to Thalia for help, but she had suddenly become very interested in her nails, avoiding eye-contact with a mix of embarrassment and apology.

            “But I don’t feel like it’s a disguise. I just… dress on the outside like I feel on the inside. I—I like being a boy better,” I muttered, distractedly  flipping Nemesis’s postcard over in my hands.

            “Girls can do everything boys can do. Why does it make a difference?”Alex asked.

            “I don’t know. I don’t know! But guy stuff and guy clothes and being treated like a guy feels more me. Like it’s right for me.”

“Like a tomboy?” Alex asked.

“No! I don’t just like boy stuff, I feel _like a boy_. Like… like my body is wrong.”

“You’re self-conscious? Everybody gets self conscious!”

Hello, Mr. Brick Wall. Have you met my head? I think you two should spend some time together. How could I defend myself, though? Alex was right. I was a liar. I was lying to them and to myself.

“What’s on that postcard?” Thalia interjected. I looked it over for the first time. A scenic, soaring view showed layers of red and orange rock in cliff faces under a bright blue sky. There were words across the top, but I couldn’t read them right at first. I never learned how to read right. I squinted and focused extra hard and made out the words “Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.” I flipped the postcard towards Thalia, Alex, and Ally. .

“Arizona or bust. Let’s get a move on,” Thalia said, decidedly not addressing the fact that you can’t walk from Cleveland, Ohio to Arizona. I shivered, the late autumn cold piercing through my shirt now that I was jacketless. “We’ll take turns with my jacket, Orion. Tell me when you get cold,” said Thalia.

I hunched my shoulders forward and crossed my arms over my chest, glancing down only briefly at my own body. _You again. I hate you._ Thalia took off walking and we followed. I trailed behind the rest with 8-Track, wishing I had just run away again when I had the chance.

 

* * *

 

Thalia lead us out of town to the interstate, where we walked for hours. None of the cars pulled over. I guess nobody cares about four kids and a dog on the highway at nine o’clock at night. That’s something I found out while homeless. Mortals don’t need the Mist to not see you.

We weren’t even out of Ohio. The quest started to feel hopeless. Or maybe that was just me. I shivered in Thalia’s jacket. Ally yawned audibly.

“Hey, Gandalf, give it a rest, why dontcha? I feel like my arms are gonna fall off. Let’s find a place to crash, comprende?” She called to Thalia.

“What about there?” I said, pointing to a building on the horizon. It glowed with a soft green light and looked about the same size as a warehouse. As we got closer, I could see the building was entirely made of frosted glass, except for the roof, which was clear.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“Who cares? Looks warm,” Ally said. “Try the door.”

Thalia walked up to the door and gave it a pull. Surprisingly, it swung open.

“Whoa…” she breathed, peering in.

Whoa was right. The building was an enormous greenhouse. No, a conservatory. No, that still wasn’t a big enough word. It was practically its own world inside. We stepped across the threshold and took off our jackets and sweatshirts in the warm air. Everywhere tropical plants grew in tandem with pine trees, fruit trees, oak trees, even cactuses, like _Hey, no judgements, we’re all fronds here._

Get it? Fronds?

Thalia, Alex, Allafare and I paced speechlessly down the marbled path, in awe of the plant life. 8-Track gleefully snapped at a monarch butterfly. Overhead, robins, parrots, and blue jays sailed between trees. The sound of a trickling stream sounded from nearby, and a light breeze tickled the leaves of the flora.

How could there be a breeze inside a greenhouse?

The path led us to a grassy clearing on the banks of a narrow river (okay, seriously, how was this all fitting in a greenhouse?) It was downright picturesque, the kind of place you see people have picnics in clothing ads. 8-Track immediately started to dig a hole between the roots of an oak tree. Ally twisted the armrests of her chair and collapsed to the ground with an exhausted sigh.

“Now this is what I’m talkin’ about,” she muttered. “No more rooftops or coffee shops for me, thank you very much.”

Thalia put her stuff down and started to unpack. I looked over the underbrush that surrounded our little clearing. One bush in particular caught my eye. _Wait… Is that…?_

“Thank the gods,” I said, shoving off Thalia’s jacket and falling to my knees. After a long day on the road, that blueberry bush looked like a four course meal. I won’t put it lightly: I stuffed my face. Meanwhile, Thalia assessed the situation.

“This place seems safe enough to set up camp for the night. We’ve got food, water, shelter, and the river seems clean enough to bathe in,” she decided.

            “To _bathe_ in?” Alex asked dubiously. “But that’s gross. Won’t we just smell like river afterwards? How is that clean?”

            “Because right now you smell like sweat and espresso,” Thalia answered. “Hunters do it all the time. Toughen up, city slicker.”

            Alex still looked uncomfortable at the thought, but took a begrudging bite out of a granola bar instead of arguing. “Well… ladies first, I guess,” he muttered.

            “Great. Ally and I can go first, you boys set up camp,” Thalia said. Alex looked like he was choking on some of his granola.

            “But I can’t— we can’t, y’know, at the same time,” Alex stuttered. “‘Cause Orion’s… y’know… It’d be weird.”

            An awkward silence fell on the conversation. Everybody looked at me, which was awful. I wished I could curl into myself and disappear. I wiped my face with the back of my hand, leaving a purple-blue streak from my knuckle to my wrist.

            “I don’t need a  bath,” I said coldly and dropped my backpack by the blueberry bush. I paced over to the tree where 8-Track was digging and pulled myself up by a low-hanging branch. I climbed high enough in the leaves so that I couldn’t see or be seen by anyone.

            “Great,” I heard Ally say, “He’s in a tree now. Snaps for Alex.”

            “I didn’t do anything!” Alex protested.

            “Just go take a bath,” Ally sighed in exasperation. I don’t know if Alex did finally go take a bath, but he did leave. Ally and Thalia were quiet for a long time.

            “You just gonna sulk up there, squirrel boy?” Ally said. I didn’t answer. “... He doesn’t mean anything by it, Orion. He doesn’t know any better. But you don’t gotta let him walk all over you, neither.”

            “What am I supposed to say?” I said. “He’s right. I am a… I’m not a boy.”

            “Don’t be so sulky. My mom works with transgender people like you all the time.”

            _People like me?_

            I swung to the lowest branch and hung upside down from it by my knees so that I could face Ally face-to-face.

            “There aren’t any people like me,” I said.

            Ally scoffed. “Don’t be so dramatic. You’ve been twelve for a hot minute now, and I reckon times have changed while you were out chasing manticores and making s’mores with your magical Girl Scout troop, so maybe you don’t know. Sometimes people’s insides don’t match their outsides.Whether you’re a boy or a girl or something else entirely doesn’t depend on the body you were born with. People are like piñatas. It’s what’s inside that counts,”

The blood was starting to pool in my head, and I wasn’t sure I understood what she was saying.

            “So your point is… I’m full of candy?” I asked.

            “My point is you’re as much a boy as Alex or anybody else.”

            “For real?”

            “For real.”

            I smiled a little. “Thanks, Allafare.”

            “Don’t mention it.”

            Just then 8-Track jumped up between us and snatched my glasses off my face with her mouth. I lost my grip in surprise and tumbled to the ground (I’m lucky it was a short fall).The next minute and a half were a blurry commotion as a large greyish shape (probably Thalia) chased around a smaller greyish shape (probably 8-Track) while shouting. Finally, Thalia pushed my glasses back onto my nose.

            We settled back in, me with my back against the trunk of the oak tree and 8-Track dozing in my lap.

            “What _does_ your mom do?” I asked Ally.

            “She’s a human rights lawyer,” she answered. “She sends people who mistreat other people for stupid reasons to jail.”

            “Sick.”

            “So sick, dude.”

            Nearby, the sound of water over rocks in the river churned comfortingly and made me yawn. The clearing smelled of wildflowers, and 8-Track took deep, steady breaths in my lap. The air had a soft, dreamy feeling to it. I hazily remember seeing Alex come back in his jeans and Camp Half Blood t-shirt, using his green hoodie to towel off his hair. Then I yawned and sank into the bark of the tree behind me.

            I wasn’t awake for what happened next. I’ve been told I’m a pretty strong sleeper. Anyway, this is how Thalia said it went down.

            Thalia and Allafare were messing around while they washed up in the river. Allafare had found a fallen pomegranate and was using it to show Thalia some of her best pitches while Thalia caught them.

            “Alright, here comes the scourge of little leagues across New York… The Winsover Overhand,” Allafare said. She wound up her arm and hurled the pomegranate upriver. A gust of wind caught it and blew it slightly off course. Allafare had just thrown what she called the “Winsover Overhand” when the pomegranate was caught by a gust of wind. Thalia dove to catch it, but dove too far and landed on a tiny sapling that broke underneath her.

            The ground started to rumble. Suddenly the trees began to sway fervently, though there was no longer any wind.

            “...Ally?” Thalia called. Allafare didn’t answer. A tree root erupted violently from the ground nearby and wrapped around Thalia’s ankles. She screamed and fell to the ground as it pulled her feet out from under her.

 


	26. Chapter 26-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allafare talks the gang out of trouble. Their streak of bad luck finding safe places to sleep continues.

Chapter 26

_Alex_

 

            Here’s a couple good rules to follow if you’re going on a quest: Number one, don’t trespass in a goddess’s greenhouse. Number two, if you do trespass in a goddess’s greenhouse, don’t break her stuff. Simple enough, right? I guess not!

            I had been minding my own business, settling in for the night after Thalia and Allafare left to wash up when suddenly, the tree I was leaning against started to tremble. Next thing I knew, the ground was twenty feet below me and I couldn’t move.

            Thick, green vines wrapped tightly around my midsection and bound my arms to my sides and my body to the trunk of a tree. I could see the others were in the same sticky situation. Even 8-Track was trapped, the gnarled branches of an angry-looking willow warping into a cage  suspended high above the forest floor. She whimpered and hid her eyes under one paw.

            Thalia took one look at the drop to the ground and froze like a deer in the headlights. She became totally unresponsive, except for the occasional whimper or bout of hyperventilation.

            Orion… oh gods, she dead? Her head lolled to one side, eyes closed and mouth slightly open. No… wait… I didn’t believe it.

            Orion was still asleep.

            Allafare and I glanced at each other across the clearing. She raised her eyebrows.

            _Here we go again._

            “FOOLISH demigods,” growled a thunderous voice that echoed throughout the forest—er, greenhouse. “You enter my domain, eat of my fruit, take for granted my hospitality, then desecrate this symbol of my power? You have disrespected  the goddess Persephone, and for this, you will pay.”

            In a flash of light and a cloud of butterflies, Persephone appeared in the center of the clearing, three times the size of an ordinary human. Her raven hair flowed freely about her head as if she was underwater or in an expensive shampoo commercial.

            Persephone made a motion with her hand like she was digging her long, perfectly pedicured nails into an overly ripe orange. The vines around my midsection tightened, and from Ally’s pained expression, I could tell hers had too.

            “Wait, wait!” I gasped.

            “What?” Persephone snapped.

If I had learned anything from all that Greek mythology, it was that when you’re faced with trouble, the Athenian thing to do is stall, bluff, and trick your way out of it. That’s exactly what I planned to do.

“Listen,” I started, “if you’re planning to torture us, which it looks like you are, you should know right now, um, I don’t really have a super high pain tolerance? Oh, and, and I have this thing about, like, sharp objects? I can’t be near those without getting all woozy, and sorta light headed, and sometimes just talking about them makes me kinda—kinda—”

I fainted. That wasn’t part of the plan

When I came to, the first thing I heard was Allafare’s voice. I cracked one eye open.

“Get _real_ , Persephone. Can I call you ‘Seph? Let’s look at the facts. It’s almost December and you’re aboveground, and nobody with boundless magical abilities gets that steamed over one little tree. Clearly you’re in a bad headspace, and I’m willing to bet Mr. I Rule The Underworld has something to do with it. So I ask again. Do you wanna talk about it?”

Persephone glared murderously at Allafare. Then she burst into tears.

“Do you mind?” she asked as she summoned an oversized, hovering sunflower to sit on.

“No, not at all!” Ally encouraged.

“How do I know you’re not just saying that so I won’t kill you and your friends?” Persephone sniffed.

“Hey, when we’re done here, you can go ahead and turn us into fruit salad or whatever floats your boat. Scout’s honor,” she added, giving Persephone a gesture that I was pretty sure was the Vulcan “Live long and prosper” sign, not the Boy Scout salute. Luckily, Persephone didn’t catch that.

The goddess of spring launched into an extended sobfest about how her husband kept having demigod children and didn’t care about her or her feelings, I think. I dunno. I zoned out pretty early on. Ally kept saying things like “you deserve so much better” and “men are dogs and gods are worse.” Honestly, it was getting hard to think with the circulation in my entire lower body cut off, but to Ally’s credit, she probably didn’t have to worry about that.

When Persephone was finally out of tears, Allafare patted her arm comfortingly (wait, when did she get her arms free?)     

“Well… I guess you probably want to get on with killing us now,” Ally sighed. Persephone wiped one last tear from her eyes and shrank down to normal human size.

“No, I feel a lot better now. You’re free to go.” The vines gently lowered all five of us to the ground. Orion tumbled out of her vine cocoon onto the ground, curled into a ball, and continued sleeping. Thalia sighed in relief as her feet met the ground.

“Tomorrow I must return to the underworld,” said Persephone, “I won’t return to this place until spring. But for tonight, you’re welcome to stay. Take what you need from the plants, and know that you’re safe until morning. Thank you for your kindness, Allison.”

Allafare winced, but didn’t correct her. “No problem.”

Persephone disappeared in a shower of rose petals and lilac.

“Hey, Ally?” I asked.

“Hm?”

“I’m gettin’ real tired of running into goddesses.”

 

* * *

In the morning, Thalia and I walked through the greenhouse, stuffing our bags with apples, pears, and anything else we could reach that would travel well. Money was tight, and food was scarce. No way were we gonna pass up on Persephone’s all-you-can-pick buffet.

When we got back to the clearing, Orion finally sat up with an enormous yawn.

“I had the weirdest dream last night, guys. Something about plants, maybe? I dunno. I forget that part. But then I was at Disney World, and the Taylor Swift was there— hey, you guys don’t look so good. Rough night?” Orion asked.

“You could say that,” Ally replied, giving me a look that said _Can you believe this kid?_

After a quick breakfast of blueberries and granola bars, we left. Stepping out of the greenhouse was like stepping into a bucket of ice cold dishwater. I felt like I’d never be warm again. Once again, Thalia took the lead as we trekked down the highway, Allafare wheeled along next to me, and Orion and 8-Track brought up the rear.

“You do realize we can’t walk to the Grand Canyon, right?” I questioned..

            “You got a better idea?” said Thalia.

            I didn’t answer, because I didn’t.

            We walked all day, only stopping twice. It was cold. It was exhausting. It was boring. I never want to do it again.

            By the time we passed a huge, gothic-looking building somewhere off to our left, the sun was low in the sky.

            “Can we call it a night? I’m so tired I could fall asleep standing,” I complained.

            “No way, there’s still time before it gets dark,” Thalia said, turning around to face us. I guess she was caught off guard by what bad shape we were in. Ally was falling asleep in her chair. Orion had her (his?)  arms around herself. 8-Track lay down on the gravel shoulder of the highway and whined.  

            “It’s cold,” Orion shivered.

            “It’s not that cold…” Thalia reasoned, but even as she spoke, a snowflake spiraled down from the sky and landed on Orion’s nose. She sneezed.

            “...Okay, let’s go,” Thalia agreed. We left the highway for a winding side road that lead to the building.

            It looked like some kind of warehouse or depot done in an old architectural style, but it was completely abandoned. The windows on all three floors were broken and boarded up, and the once-elegant stone walls were covered in graffiti.

            “Is it safe?” I said quietly, afraid to break the silence.

            “Safer than hypothermia,” Allafare replied.

            The first floor of the building was dark and empty. I switched on my reading flashlight (Thalia hooked me up with new batteries on the bus ride to Cleveland). The beam of light swept over stone pillars and tiled floors that magnified the click of our footsteps. It was a lonely, yawning cave of a building. I shuddered.

            Ally and I made a makeshift fire pit from a steel drum that we found propping open the door to a stairway. It was rusted enough for me to cut it in half with my sword so that we could use the bottom half. Thalia and Orion gathered discarded newspapers and cardboard boxes to use as firewood. Luckily, Allafare had the foresight to bring matches. Our fire wasn’t nearly as big as the one at camp, and it smelled like burning garbage, but it was warm all the same.

            We silently gnawed on apples and Necta-Grain bars as a fine dusting of snow covered the ground outside. A general feeling of melancholy saturated the silence as we realized how impossible our task was. No transportation, no idea what we were up against, no hope whatsoever. Orion halfheartedly hummed “The Sun’ll Come Out Tomorrow.”

            Even 8-Track seemed on edge.

            “Shh, girl. Down,” Orion soothed, petting 8-Track gently between the ears, but 8-Track sat upright, tense, ears pushed forward and eyes focused somewhere in the darkness. Suddenly, she jumped to her feet, howling wildly.

            Thalia groaned. “Geez, 8-Track, give it a rest—”

            If it hadn’t been for 8-Track, we never would have had enough time to jump to our feet. Thalia and Orion summoned their Hunters’ bows, I unsheathed my sword, and 8-Track sprang defensively to Allafare’s side just as a poisonously green whip cracked through the darkness and struck the spot where 8-Track had been standing a second earlier.

            “Well, well, well, Alex, you’re certainly proving more trouble than you’re worth,” rang a the sound of a woman’s voice. A _familiar_ woman’s voice.

            “Who’s there?” I called.

            “You mean you don’t remember me? I’m hurt.” I remembered her, alright. I remembered her from school and my first near-death experience on the train.

            Into the firelight stepped the woman with golden hair.

 


	27. Chapter 27-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thalia blows up. No, really. Allafare counts on Alex in a moment of emotional and physical vulnerability.

Chapter 27

_ Alex _

 

She looked the same, except that now I could see her through the Mist. Her golden curls and grey flight attendant suit were the same, but she had one bronze leg and one donkey leg. Her eyes glinted red in the firelight. She no longer hid her fangs under imaginary, picture-perfect teeth, and in her hand was a long, spike-tipped whip the color of lime snowcones. 

“Do you like it?” she asked politely, noticing my stare. “ I picked it up in Tartarus. You know, where you sent me to  _ rot, _ ” she snarled. 

“Listen,” I started, “Miss—uh—”

“Cherise.”

“Miss Cherise. I never meant to—”

“Stab me through the chest?”

“Exactly! I didn’t want any trouble, and I don’t want any now. “

“Then you should have just let me drink your blood when you had the chance,” she simpered. Her voice made my brain feel foggy. For a second I really thought she felt sorry for me. 

_ Snap out of it, Alex. _

“My… my blood?”

“Of course. I’m an empousa. I drink the blood of young men. It’s just what I do,” she smiled, very business-like. 

“Great,” I grumbled, “of all the people here,  _ I  _ had to be the hot item on the menu.”

“And me,” Orion added after an awkward pause. 

“I mean… that doesn’t really count, though,” I said.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Do you really want to do this  _ now _ ?” 

“Yeah, ‘cause you keep treating me like a freak!” 

“ENOUGH.” Cherise cracked her whip. It narrowly missed my face and snapped my sword out of my hands. Two more cracks sent Orion’s and Thalia’s bows clattering across the tile floor. “You’re missing the point,” Cherise said, composed once more.  “I don’t care about your blood anymore. I want revenge,” she hissed.

“I’m warning you,” Thalia growled, “This won’t play out the way you want it to. Leave us alone, or I’ll send your butt back to Tartarus before you can say ‘ouch.’” A low rumble of thunder echoed overhead. 

Cherise laughed. Gosh, her laugh was kind of pretty. Come to think of it, she was kind of pretty all over. I didn’t really need all my blood, did I? 

“Big words, little girl. Zeus must be so ashamed of the company his daughter keeps. How are you supposed to, as you so vividly put, ‘send my butt back to Tartarus’ when some of you can’t even walk?”  She grinned wickedly at Allafare. 

Cherise’s whip went  _ crack _ .

Something much larger went  **_KABOOM._ **

The entire building exploded in a brilliant white flash. For a brief second after my feet left the ground, I thought  _ something tastes like metal.  _ Then I slammed into a slab of concrete. Everything went dark.

 

* * *

 

_ What happened? _

I tried to sit up. My back screamed. My face felt like it was on fire. I touched my cheek and my hand came away wet with blood. 

_ Ouch… _

Besides the one big cut on my face and a few scrapes and bruises, I was okay. I patted the ground beside me and discovered that I had been blown directly into a stairwell. Getting to my feet, I tentatively stepped down five or six steps with my arms outstretched before I met a heap of rubble. The ceiling was caved in. I didn’t pry too much in the dark; I was too worried about exposed nails and asbestos and gods knew what else. 

“Gosh darn it,” I said aloud. 

“Alex?” came a weak voice from behind me. 

“Allafare? Is that you?” 

“Alex,” it said again, more insistently, “help.”

I scrambled up the steps as best as I could in the dark, groping blindly and calling “Ally, where are you? Keep talking!” but all she managed was a weak “here.”

Finally, my hand ran into the tip of her shoe. 

“Ally?” 

I reached out and touched her shoulder. She was shaking.

“Are you okay?”

_ Sniff. _

“...Are you crying?”

She didn’t answer right away.

“This... this sucks so bad, Alex,” her voice cracked. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll get out of this,” I promised. 

“Not this. All of this. Everything. I just—” she took a shuddery breath. “I just wanna play baseball, man. That’s all I wanted do, and I’ll never do that again. And I just want to lead this stupid quest but I can’t even do  _ that _ . I can’t do anything. This isn’t fair. I don’t want to be like this anymore. I hate being so  _ useless _ .” Her shoulders shook. “I don’t even have a weapon.”

“So? Weapons don’t matter, Allafare, and you’re not useless. That’s not even a little bit true. Who saved us from being Persephone’s fertilizer, huh? You think Orion and I could have done that? We’re stupid, right?” I thought that would make her laugh, but it didn’t. 

“And what about in Cleveland?” I went on. “You were the one who figured out where Orion would head first, remember? You’re smart, Ally. Really smart. You know how people work, you’ve always got a plan, you’ve got know-how and street smarts and all kinds of important stuff. And you’re a good friend. We never would have gotten this far without you.”

“I don’t know where my chair went in the blast,” she replied after some time.

I went to sit next to her and my knee brushed something bulky.

“Hey, what’s this under your legs?” I asked.

“...Dude, seriously?” 

“Oh. Right. Sorry.” I tugged the item out from under Ally’s knees. It was my messenger bag! “Hey, my stuff! I’ve still got a few bars of ambrosia left in here. Are you hurt?” I asked. I rummaged through the contents of my bag and found my reading flashlight. I clicked it on and swept the beam over Allafare. 

She leaned against the wall of the stairwell with her legs at a funny angle. Her hair was tangled and her face was still wet with tears. She cradled one arm close to her body. The sleeve was torn from above her elbow down to her wrist. Through the rip, I could see a long, angry gash in her arm that was tinted a venomous green—the same color as Cherise’s whip. 

“Oh no… quick, eat some of this,” I urged, digging a bar of ambrosia out of my bag. Ally took it with her one good arm and ate it. I waited a few minutes for something to happen, but nothing did. The gash didn’t start to heal like it should have, and Ally only seemed to get weaker. 

“Try another one,” I said, but her arm still didn’t heal. I tried to offer her a third bar, but she shook her head. 

“It’s too hot in here,” she mumbled. I knew what she meant. Mortals can’t eat ambrosia, because it’ll burn them up alive. The same thing can happen to demigods if we have too much. But the ambrosia wasn’t working in the first place, and Allafare was only getting worse. 

_ I don’t know what to do, _ I thought, panicked. 

Just then, the blockade of rubble shifted. I could hear someone on the other side moving pieces of concrete. 

“Thalia? Orion?” I called. “We’re in here! Help!”

I ran down the steps with my flashlight and started to move small fragments of concrete and wood from the rubble. Finally, a much more powerful flashlight beam broke through into the stairwell.  My relief faltered. 

The good news was that we had finally been rescued. The bad news was that the girl standing on the other side of the cave-in wasn’t Thalia. 

 


	28. Chapter 28-Orion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amazons to the rescue!

Chapter 28

_Orion_

 

            Sometimes I forget that Thalia is the daughter of Zeus, so when she summoned a giant lightning bolt and sent that empousa sky high, I was pretty shocked. Shocked, get it? Of course, she blew the rest of us up too, but that was an accident. Probably.

            The blast seriously demolished the building. Without the Blessing of Artemis, I doubt I would have survived it. Kind of like demigods, Hunters get super strength when they sign on as a follower of Artemis.

            I lost my hat and almost lost my glasses when the lightning struck, but I didn’t get too hurt. However, I landed on my stomach on a mound of cement and got trapped under a crossbeam that fell at a strange angle I couldn’t try to lift it, since I was stuck on my stomach, but I could almost wiggle out from under it… except my hips were too wide.

            _Thanks a lot, hips. Like I needed another reason to hate my body._

            In the end, it was Thalia who found me struggling between a rock and a hard place. She grasped the steel beam and lifted it a few inches with a grunt.

            “I didn’t mean to blow up the whole building,” she said. “Overkill, do you think?”

            “I think it was a _blast_ ,” I said.

            Thalia groaned and gave me a look like she was seriously considering me back under the crossbeam and walking away.

            I got to my feet.

            “Where are the others?” I asked.

            Just then, the beam of a bright flashlight swept through the darkness and stopped on Thalia. She squinted into the light and instinctively reached for her bow, but it had been tossed aside by Cherise and was probably buried in the rubble. Instead, Thalia tapped her silver bracelet. It expanded into her terrifying shield, Aegis.

            “Who’s there?” she called.

            “Lieutenant! My name is Rona. I am an Amazon under Queen Hylla Ramírez-Arellano. We were driving on the freeway when we saw the explosion. Are you or your Hunters hurt?”

            Thalia’s shoulders relaxed.

            “We’re traveling with two other demigods from Camp Half Blood. We don’t know where they are,” she replied.

            “We’ll help you find them,” Rona assured us, drawing closer. A number of other flashlights clicked on in the dark. Rona was a tall, muscular black girl with her hair tied back in a sunflower yellow bandana . “It was just the pair of you and and the other two demigods in here?” she asked.

            “Us and an empousa. Which I took care of,” Thalia said pointedly.

A jolt of fear hit me in the chest.

            “What about 8-Track? She was in here too!” I cried.

            “Eight track?” Rona asked.

            “My dog!  Oh gods, Thalia, you blew up my dog!” I panicked.

            “Dude, relax!” Thalia said.  “I’m sure she made it out okay. She’s a clever girl. Let’s focus on finding our human quest mates first, okay?”

            I nodded, but I still felt panicky.

            Thalia had really done a number on the old building. The outer walls were still standing, but the center was completely burnt out. If you stood on the pile of rubble in the middle and looked up, you could see the sky four stories above. The moon was right overhead.

            Half a dozen Amazons helped us pick over the wreckage as Thalia and I called “Alex! Allafare!” and listened for a response. We found both of our bows, Alex’s sword, a small bronze tin turned out to be Allafare’s chair, my hat, half a Necta-Grain bar that smelled badly of ozone, but neither Alex nor Allafare. We found 8-Track curled under an old-timey payphone attached to the wall. When we found her, she licked my face eagerly, but whimpered when she tried to put weight on her back leg. One of the Amazons effortlessly picked her up and carried her around like a baby.

            “Over here!” Called one of the Amazons, “We found them!”

            “Orion, Thalia, help!” Alex cried. The rest of the Amazons, Thalia, and I swarmed to the stairway where Alex and Allafare were trapped. Within a few minutes, we cleared away enough collapsed concrete for Alex to step out with Allafare in his arms. She looked real bad. She seemed to have just enough strength to look vaguely annoyed with the whole situation.

            “Nectar and ambrosia isn’t working… I think it’s making it worse,” Alex fretted. Rona took a look at the poison-green gash on Ally’s arm and felt her forehead.

            “Ambrosia fever… this wound like this is made from a powerful magical weapon. It cannot be cured without equally strong magic. The poison is spreading quickly,” she muttered.

            “Can you help her?” asked Alex on the verge of tears.

            “We have a distribution office near here, where we can get help, but we must move quickly. Otherwise, the only option may be to cut off her arm,” Rona said.

            “You ga’ be frign’ kidin me,” Ally slurred.

            “Come on, there’s no time to lose,” Ron urged. The Amazons lead us out of the building  to a pair of vans with the Amazon.com logo on the sides.

            “Wait,” said Alex, “The Amazons run Amazon? I love Amazon! I’m a huge fan of your work! I pre-order books from you guys all the time,” he said.

            “Tha’s b’cause you’re a nerd,” Ally mumbled.

            Thalia and 8-Track went with half of the Amazons in one van.. Alex carried Ally into the other one. I followed them and sat in the back on my own.

            “Gotcha seat belts?” Ally asked. “Always wear seabelt. Ver’ important,” she slurred.

            “It would be best she didn’t talk,” Rona warned us as Alex buckled Ally into her seat. “She should save her strength.”

            “You’re gonna be okay, Allafare,” Alex said quietly.

            “Hey don’— don’t say nothin’ bout tha’ whole baseball thing, promise?” she muttered through gritted teeth. I wasn’t sure what she meant.

“You got it. Promise,” Alex replied.

I tugged at my bracelet. I thought about praying to Apollo, being the god of medicine and all that, but then I remembered that the whole reason we were on this quest was because he went missing in the first place. Instead, I prayed to Hermes to keep his daughter safe.

When we got to the distribution office, Rona helped us put Ally in her wheelchair and wheel her to the front doors. It looked pretty small for an Amazon office— no bigger than a Subway restaurant. The Amazon logo glowed above the door. We met up with Thalia and the others inside and filed into a steel elevator where Rona prodded a button with a star on it. The elevator started down. And down. And down, down, down, down, farther than any normal ordinary elevator goes. Finally, with a _ding!_ The doors opened onto an enormous, stone-floored,  warehouse lit by fluorescent lights. Young women and girls walked around and took stock of a weird assortment of ordinary and magical items from books to celestial bronze cannons. They sported headsets, clipboards, quivers, sheaths, and Kindles. Young men carried boxes, drove forklifts, swept the floor, and replaced light bulbs overhead. They sported orange jumpsuits and steel collars. Yikes.

As a Hunter, I’d worked in tandem with the Amazons once or twice, but they still made me incredibly nervous. They were so much more corporate than Hunters. Being a Hunter was like going to summer camp. Being an Amazon was like being an up-and-coming CEO. It looked way less fun.

“Please have your young man walk in front of you,” Rona asked. “For security reasons.”

“What???” Alex cried. “But that’s not f—” he wilted under Rona’s stare. “Y—you bet. No problem,” he gulped.

“Uh, I’m— I’m a security issue too,” I offered. I crossed my arms over my chest despite myself. The words “I’m a boy” still got caught in my throat. I still couldn’t say them without feeling guilty.

“Oh! I’m so sorry, my mistake,” Rona apologized, “Then you will both walk in front of the Lieutenant.”

I noticed Thalia had adorned her silver circlet again. Probably for diplomatic reasons.

Most of the Amazons went back to work. 8-Track was carried away. Rona and a few others hurried us farther back into the warehouse as they wheeled Allafare along and called for medical/magical help.

            “So, guys,” Thalia said, “I’m sure you can get a vibe for the Amazons’ attitude towards men. Don’t misbehave, or they’ll put you to work too,” she warned.

            “Oh no, Lieutenant,” Rona said, “Too young to work. They would probably be fed to some of our mythical predator stock. Quite a market for that these days, but such expensive upkeep.”

            She was joking. I think.

            Finally, we came to a narrow hallway where stacks of cardboard boxes reading “DAMAGED MERCHANDISE” in big, black letters lined the walls. A single doorway stood at the opposite end of the hall.

            “This is where our most potent magical items are stored,” Rona explained. “for security’s sake, it’s heavily charmed. No man may pass this threshold.”

            Thalia glanced at us. “Sorry, guys. See you in a bit.”

            She rolled Allafare inside and left me and Alex standing awkwardly in the hallway with one Amazon left to guard us.

            Alex cleared his throat. “You know, you could probably go in. If... if you wanted,” he said pointedly. The worry I felt for Allafare quickly turned into irritation towards Alex.

            “No thanks,” I said shortly. I leaned against a stack of boxes and glared at the ground. Alex shifted uncomfortably.

            After a while, he looked at our guard, a young woman with pulled back blonde hair and a sheathed dagger at her hip. For security reasons, I assume.

            “What are they doing to her in there?” Alex asked.

            “It’s not of male concern.”

            “But she’s our friend!” he protested.

            “It’s not of male concern.”

            “But—”

            Just then, we heard a yelp of pain from inside.

            “Allafare!” I gasped. Without thinking, I bolted for the door. I heard a sound like a two-ton pigeon running into a glass window, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the concrete floor while two hazy Alex’s stared down at me in surprise.

            “Are—are you okay?”

            “Wha happenz?” I mumbled, rubbing an egg-sized bump on my head.

            “Gee whiz… this is really you, isn’t it?” Alex muttered in wonder.

            “Huh?” I asked, as the two blurry Alex’s came into focus as one solid Alex.

            “Gosh… well, gosh,” he shook his head and offered me a hand. I shook my head. I was too dizzy to stand up. Instead, I sat up against the wall. Alex sank down besides me, still looking surprised.

            “Geez, Orion,” he said after a while. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a jerk. I’ve never met anyone...er...like that.”

“Transgender,” I said, “Allafare says that’s what it’s called.”

“There are a lot of reasons that must be hard on you. I should have tried harder not to be one of them. I’m sorry. Are we still friends?” he asked.

“Best friends, dude.”  

Alex looked relieved. He glanced up and down the stacks of damaged merchandise. Then he sprang to his feet. He pulled a box down and started to dig through it.

“Hey, you can’t do that! That’s Amazon’s legal property,” our guard growled, one hand on her dagger’s hilt.

“It’s damaged, right? You’re just going to throw it out anyway,” Alex responded. Our guard mulled this over and shrugged, like she decided he wasn’t worth the trouble.

Alex dug through six boxes of damaged merchandise before he found what he was looking for. He pulled out an extra-large, cherry red hoodie with neon green and yellow zigzags around the wrists. The zipper tag was missing, which I guessed is what made it damaged.

“Here. You gave yours away for the sake of the quest, you should get one back,” he said. The hoodie was enormous on me. I had to roll up the sleeves three times to see my hands and the bottom hung past my knees, but I felt warmer than I had been in weeks and I didn’t feel like I needed to hunch my shoulders or cross my arms over my chest anymore. I smiled.

“Thanks, Alex.”

He sat back down beside me and we stayed quiet for a little bit longer, both falling back into our worry for Allafare.

“Hey, Alex.”

“What?”

“What’s an Amazon’s favorite sport?”

“What?”

I pointed at the stacks of damaged merchandise.

“Boxing.”

He groaned.

“Hey, Alex.”

“Hm?”

“Do Amazons mark their students down on incorrect homework problems?”

“I don’t know, do they?”

“No. They give _parcel_ -credit.”

He snickered.

“Hey, Alex.”

“Yeah?

“Did you know Amazons can ride any cruise line they want at no cost?”

“Really?”

“Yeah. They get _free shipping._ ”

He laughed out loud.

“What are you two bozos on about?” rang Ally’s voice as she appeared out of the doorway, arm and attitude fully healed.

“Forget it,” Alex smiled, nudging me with his elbow, “It’s a guy thing.”

 


	29. Chapter 29-Allafare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys are back on better terms, 8-Track is on her way home, and everyone else is on their way to Arizona.

Chapter 29

_Allafare_

 

Don’t let the whole “blah blah Amazons blah blah war goddess” vibe fool you. I’ve spent some quality time in emergency rooms, and I could tell this one was no different.

I’ll tell you this much. I felt like my arm was on fire and like I was gonna throw up. After way too much touchy-feely investigation, one of the Amazons produced a bottle of something icy looking. Looked like white Gatorade, right? And she was all “This’ll only hurt for a second.”

Bull. She poured this stuff on my arm and it burned and felt like it was freezing my arm all at the same time, and I shouted and told ‘em where they could stick their “only hurt for a second” while Thalia held my arms down (good thing too, because I swear to gods I was about to start throwing punches) when suddenly, my whole arm went tingly, then kind of numb, and then it didn’t hurt anymore. When I looked, the green gash has healed up completely.

“Hey… hey, that wasn’t so bad,” I muttered.

“We’re so sorry for all the trouble,” Thalia gritted her teeth.

Rona laughed. “Don’t be. I admire such a fight in one so young. It’s no wonder you held your ground against that poison. Bellona would be proud.”

I asked if we could leave. I wanted to make sure Alex and Orion done something stupid without me. The Amazon who had taken care of my arm (I guess she was the head medic or a daughter of Hecate or somethin’) said she wanted to wait until my ambrosia fever went down. What a pain. You let somebody save you from amputation and suddenly they think they can walk all over you. Nurses is the same no matter where you go.

Finally, I wheeled out into the hallway with Thalia. Orion was wearing a new, bright red zip-up with his dirty grey hat, and the tension between him and Alex seemed to have disappeared entirely. They were laughing and joking around, and Orion seemed more at ease than I’d ever seen him. For the first time in a while, I figured we’d be okay.

“You’re okay!” Orion jumped to his feet.

“Yeah, apparently Bellona would be proud,” I shrugged.

“Sounds like a lot of _Bellona_ to me,” he winked. Alex groaned. “Did they tell you anything about 8-Track?” Orion asked. “They haven’t told us what happened to her.”

“Your wolf has been sent home,” Rona interrupted. “We had a shipment headed for New York. She’s unfit to quest, and we don’t have the facilities necessary to care for her.” Nectar and ambrosia might be enough for demigods, but it sure wasn’t for dogs, no matter how sort-of-magical they might be.

Orion’s shoulders sagged, and his happiness literally shattered on the concrete floor. I kid you not. Like, cleanup on aisle six. Watch out for the puddle of sadness. Very hazardous in a work environment.

“Oh… I didn’t get to say goodbye.”

“You’ll see her again when we go back to Camp Half Blood,” Alex said. Orion pushed back his oversized sleeves and fiddled with his bracelet.

“If I go back to Camp Half Blood,” he muttered.

“Come on dude, cheer up,” Alex insisted. He clapped a hand on Orion’s shoulder. Orion politely handed it back to him.

“No touching,” he muttered. Whatever touchy-feely soul-searching brother-bonding nonsense had gone on while I was away clearly hadn’t made Orion any less averse to physical contact.

“Lieutenant, you must be tired from your travels. You can tell us all about your quest over dinner.”

“Dinner?” Orion perked up. The thought of food made me pretty dang cheerful, too. We hadn’t had a hot meal in forever.

            We headed back into the main warehouse, where the dudes in orange jumpsuits parked their forklifts and the Amazons turned off their tablets. Must have been a long day for everyone (but I’m willing to bet mine was the longest.)

            Dinner ended up being a whole lot of pizza ordered from a late-night chain and served in a huge break room.

            “Amazons like pizza?” I asked.

            “Who doesn’t,” Thalia shrugged.

            I looked forward to catching up with Alex and Orion, but they the Amazons ushered them over to a table in the corner where a few jumpsuited guys sat separate from every other Amazon-filled table. Orion didn’t seem to mind. From our table I saw him wolf down two pieces of pizza off of his plate, two right out of the box, and another off of Alex’s plate when he thought Alex wasn’t looking. Alex made eye contact with me and raised his eyebrows.

            _Yikes_.

            _Yikes is right, my man._

Rona asked Thalia a lot of questions about our quest and Apollo’s disappearance. I mostly listened. Thalia explained that we were trying to get to the Grand Canyon.

“We often have contact with a distribution branch in Arizona,” Rona commented. “It wouldn't be difficult to transport you to the state border. That’s as far as we can take you, I’m afraid. The holiday season puts a strain on our resources. Any other time, we’d be glad to offer more help, but—” Rona trailed off apologetically.

“We couldn’t ask for more,” Thalia said. “Thank you.”

I glanced over at the guys’ table, where Orion was constructing a scale model of the Eiffel Tower out of plastic forks. Alex watched with equal parts confusion and wonder. The tower was so tall that Orion had to stand on his chair to reach the top. The Amazons’ men handed forks up to him.

“Can I go sit at the kids’ table?” I interrupted.

“No,” said Thalia. “You’re supposed to be the quest leader. Are you paying attention?”

“Oh yeah, you bet.” _What are we talking about?_

“Then it’s settled,” said Rona. “Tonight, you will ship out with my colleagues. The trip won’t take more than two days. You should know, our truckers are rather cutthroat. They don’t make a lot of stops. It would be best if you used the restroom before you left.”

_Lord Hermes, slaughter me with a chainsaw. Lots of love, Allafare._

The thought of doing anything besides falling asleep right now was about as attractive as the guy picking his nose at Alex and Orion’s table. For gods’ sakes, we’d already done a twenty-mile death march, been attacked by America’s Next Top Monster, had a building blown up on top of us (thanks, Thalia), and had the pleasure of being manhandled by the entire staff of everyone’s favorite online book store all in one day.

            “I just wanna sleep.”

            “What?” Thalia demanded.

            “I said cool, whatever.”

 

* * *

           

Later, Alex, Orion, Thalia, and I were stuffed in the back seat of an Amazon van (I was rooting for a truck, but I guess I didn’t wanna bounce around in the back with 101 copies of _Pride and Prejudice_ anyway.) There were only three seats between the four of us, so not everybody could wear a seatbelt. I did. Thalia and Orion were squashed seatbeltless together in the middle. Alex, at the other window seat, wore a seatbelt too.

            “This seems kind of dangerous, guys,” he said. I was too tired to point out that of everything we did in the past week, riding without a seatbelt was the least dangerous.

            The van pulled out of the distribution center parking lot. Under the yellow glare of the streetlights, Rona waved goodbye.

            Man, I forgot how fast being in a car was. My stomach was full, and for the first time since Persephone’s greenhouse I wasn’t freezing my butt off. The hum of the van devouring mile after mile of highway was nice. The two Amazons in the front seat were women of few words, and the van soon fell silent, except for Orion’s light snores. The guy was practically asleep before the keys had turned in the ignition.

            Me, I couldn’t fall asleep. I don’t know why, I was definitely tired enough. Just too much on my mind, I guess. All this crappy quest stuff kept turning up all wrong.

            _Apollo, disappearance, Orion, runaway Hunters, Artemis, punishment, 8-Track, Nemesis_ —

“Are you awake?” asked Alex quietly.

            “Yeah.”

            “ Me too.”

            “Duh.”

            He went quiet.

            “...What’s parsley mouth?” I asked after a minute.

            “A what?”

            “Nemesis, she said she was the only one who knew where Apollo was, unless you had parsley mouth. What is that?”

            “Oh. Parselmouth. It’s a Harry Potter thing, when wizards can talk to snakes…” he trailed off. Even though it was dark, I could tell his face was getting that intense, calculating look it did when he was rewinding to something he’d read.

            “What?”

            “What what?”

            “You’re doing that thing.”

            “What thing?”

            “The thing with the books.”

            “I dunno. Maybe she was just messing with us…” he didn’t sound too sure.

            “Maybe.”

            Some time later, we passed the state border into Indiana.

            “Are you awake?” I asked.

            He wasn’t.

 


	30. Chapter 30- Orion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orion has a dream about his dad, trips in a ditch, and plays some music.

Chapter 30

_Orion_

 

            I was seven years old exactly on that day. Mom wasn’t home. That was the best present of all (that’s not saying much—I never got very fun presents).

            I heard the door open. My heart skipped a beat. She wasn’t supposed to be home, not yet! Someone was in the house.

            _Who’s in the house?_

            I heard somebody call my name. I tiptoed into the kitchen and peered into the front hall. He called my name again. I couldn’t see his face… I don’t remember it. Maybe I was too little? Did I even know then who he was?

            He saw me. He smiled— I know he did, and I remembered the smile, but I couldn’t remember the face it was on, couldn’t remember the color of his hair or the sound of his name. He had a brown jacket and a warm voice. That’s all I could remember. He crouched down to my level.

            _Hi there, sweetie._

            I hid behind the kitchen doorframe. His smile faltered.

_Don’t tell me you don’t remember me?_

            I didn’t.

            _It’s your dad, sweetheart. You remember me, don’t you?_

_Dad?_

            He smiled again.

            _Somebody’s got a birthday today, huh? I got somethin’ for you._

            I nodded and eased cautiously into the front hall. He pulled a silver box from inside his coat pocket and my curiosity got the best of me. He placed the box in my outstretched hands and pulled off the lid. Inside was a silver bracelet, prettier than anything I’d ever been allowed to own. I gasped. The man smiled.

            _You like it?_

            I nodded. The man glanced over his shoulder at the shut door uneasily.

            _I can’t stay much longer. Your mom won’t let me. Can I tell you a secret?_

            I nodded absentmindedly, tracing fingers over the twists of silver music notes and links of shining chain.

            _Do you believe in magic?_

            Suddenly I was on guard again. Was it some kind of test? Was she hiding behind the couch, in the the coat closet, waiting for me to trip up?

            I shook my head, hard.

            _You don’t have to lie to me._

            Slowly, I nodded.

            _Well this has a special kind of magic. As long as you keep that bracelet safe, it’ll always keep you safe too. Can you do that? Can you keep it safe for me?_

_...Yes._

            I remembered he looked sad.

            _I’m gonna come back for you, okay?_

            I didn’t understand.

            _I’m gonna come back for you._

            Come back for me?

            _I promise._

            Somebody shook me violently awake.

            “ORION.”

            Allafare shoved me off of her shoulder.

            “Get off! We’re here.”

            I stretched in the back seat of the Amazon van.

            _That’s weird… I haven’t dreamed about my dad since I was little._

            I shook my head to dispel the dream. I didn’t like to think about the stuff I’d left behind.  I didn’t like it to take up too much of who I was.

            “You alright?” Alex asked.

            “I gotta pee,” I yawned. Rona hadn’t been kidding. Those Amazon drivers were hardcore about covering ground. I think we only stopped for the bathroom once every state. It had been nothing but drive-through dining for the last two days. I didn’t mind, but I think Alex was scarred for life. If the guy ever sees a McNugget again, I think he might cry.

            Thalia and Alex helped Allafare transfer from the backseat of the van to her wheelchair. I stumbled out the door, rubbed my eyes, pushed my glasses up my nose, and adjusted my hat.

            “Whoa, dude… what month is it?”  It was way warmer here than it had been in Ohio. It felt like we had jumped back to the beginning of September: cool, but not cold. I liked it.

            “It’s December 1st,” answered one of the Amazons in the front seat, checking the date on her Kindle.

            “Alright!” Ally pumped a fist in the air. “December is the best month! You got Hanukkah, my birthday, and Christmas all in a row. Jackpot.” She grinned, but her smile fell. “I mean… Y’know. If we’re home in time.”

            “We will be. I can feel it. Things are finally going our way,” Alex said. “Wait… you can’t celebrate Hanukkah _and_ Christmas.”

            “My grandparents didn’t survive the Holocaust for you to tell me what I can and can’t do, butthead.”

            “Play nice or I’ll kick you into the Grand Canyon,” Thalia interrupted. I really look up to her. She’s a born leader.

            “First we gotta get there,” Alex pointed out. “Where are we?”

            One of the Amazons pulled up a map of our location on her Kindle. A bouncing blue arrow hovered over a rest stop symbol.

            “This is us,” she said. “We’re about halfway between Phoenix and Flagstaff. Only about a day’s drive to the Grand Canyon. But by foot…” she shrugged. “We can’t take you any further than this. It’s not on our route.”

            “On behalf of the Hunters of Artemis and Camp Half Blood, we thank you very—”

            The Amazon slammed the door of their van and sped out of the rest stop parking lot.

            “... much.”

            We agreed to make a quick stop at the rest stop facilities before we set out. Alex offered to accompany me into the men’s room, but I couldn’t do it. Instead, Alex watched the door while I used the unisex bathroom. The four of us filled up our water bottles at the drinking fountain. Then, we were off.

            We trekked along the highway side, glad to be out of the urban jungle. Not quite the wilderness I was used to— instead of pine trees, there were huge orange rock formations, and instead of underbrush there were low, scrubby desert grasses, but it was the open air all the same. I took a deep breath and smiled.

            We walked mostly in silence. It was different from before, when we walked down the side of the Ohio highway. There were fewer cars, and it wasn’t bitterly cold. After sitting so long in a car, we were all grateful for the chance to stretch our legs (and arms, in Allafare’s case) We had a direction. Things were finally going our way.

            “Hey, Orion?” Alex was the first to break the silence.

            “Yeah, my man?”

            “How come you’ve still got all the Hunter perks if you aren’t a Hunter anymore?”

            I felt a twinge in my heart. I didn’t like to think of myself as “not a Hunter anymore,” even though I knew that was probably the case. I opened my mouth to answer, but Thalia stepped in before I could.

            “I’ve got this one figured out,” she said. “A Hunter can’t leave the ranks of Artemis unless it's a voluntary action or she breaks her vows.”

_“I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis,”_ I recited, _“I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt.”_

“Think about it. You haven’t technically broken any vows. You never formally quit. Since you’ve been on the run by yourself, you haven’t kept the company of men. And, uh… pretty sure your maidenhood is still eternal.”

“What’s maidenhood?” Alex asked. Allafare tugged him down by the sleeve and whispered in his ear. His ears turned red.

“As far as I can tell, it’s gonna take an outright confession for you to be booted out of the Hunt,” Thalia shrugged.

_Confession? Oh boy…_ I felt queasy. I was having so much fun on the quest that I forgot about going home… possibly being executed for the Apollo’s disappearance was bad enough, but having to face Artemis was way worse than death.

“I—I don’t know if I can do that,” I gulped. “For cripe’s sake, the last time I even thought about telling Lady Artemis how I felt, I had to— had to—”

“Ditch,” said Allafare.

“...That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”

“No, Orion, ditch,” said Alex.

“Cut me a little slack, guys—”

“DITCH!” they both shouted.

I didn’t turn around in time. I stepped backward into the ditch and tumbled to the ground. I dropped my unzipped backpack, and my stuff scattered all across the road.

“Aw, man…” I got to my feet and brushed orangey-brown dirt off the back of my sweatshirt. Alex was already chasing my dropped junk.

“Hey, what’s this?” He asked, picking up a little white box and straightening up.

“Oh! I forgot about that! I got that at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, remember?” I grinned. He opened the lid and squinted inside.

“It looks like a pencil sharpener with too many holes,” he said.

“No, dude.” I stuffed the rest of my stuff into my backpack and slung it over my shoulder. “It’s an ocarina!”

“I love that dance,” said Ally.

“That’s the Macarena,” said Alex. He couldn’t tell yet when she was messing with him yet, but I could. While they argued about what the Macarena was (“that’s my favorite pasta.” “Macaroni!” “Isn’t that an island?” “Mackinac!” “No, those are those building bricks.” “LEGOS???”) I unpacked the ocarina from its box. It was bright red and tear shaped, about the size of a computer mouse, with twelve small holes and a mouthpiece like a whistle. I’d always wanted to learn how to play one, and when I saw them in the Hall of Fame gift shop, I couldn’t resist. I put it to my mouth and tentatively blew.

It made a sound like a very, very low flute, but smoother. Within a few minutes, I could play it pretty well. Not to brag, but I sort of have a natural knack for instruments. The hardest ones are my favorite. They’re more fun to learn.

            As we continued down the road, I tweeted out some songs I already knew from my old piano lessons, but they were mostly sad church songs and the beginning of “Here Comes the Sun.” Those got boring really fast.

            “Give me requests!” I called. Allafare asked for Christmas music.

            I started to walk backward again and played “All I Want For Christmas is You.”

            “Do you guys feel something? Like, with your feet?” Alex asked.

            “Nope,” said Allafare. Alex rolled his eyes.

            I started another song.

            “Like, a rumbling?” Alex tried again.

            “Maybe it’s an Arizona thing,” Thalia suggested, but I noticed she summoned her bow and nocked an arrow in it.

            A few bars into Jingle Bells, I realized the three of them had stopped in their tracks. My last note fell flat. Sort of the musical equivalent of “Laughing all the ...whaaaa...?”

            “Uh… Orion? You may or may not want to turn around,” Alex said.

            I felt a burst of warm, moist air against the back of my head. Very slowly, I turned to see the giant snout that was investigating my back. I was completely seized by awe. My jaw dropped open. Only one thing came to mind.

            “Oh deer.”

 


	31. Chapter 31-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Golden Hind of Artemis gives the kids a helping hoof. Alex figures out exactly what they're up against.

Chapter 31

_Alex_

 

            The golden deer that stood behind Orion was as tall as a two-story house with a head the size of a suitcase. It could have lay with its back legs in my bedroom, its body in our living room, its shoulders in our kitchen and its head out on the fire escape and still feel cramped. Thalia and Orion seemed to be in even more awe than Allafare and I.

            “Orion… is that…” Thalia gaped.

            “The Fifth Hind,” Orion breathed. He took off his beanie and held it over his heart in respect. The deer kept its nose in Orion’s face, inquisitive eyes locked with his.

            “Fifth Hind? Isn’t that an 80s band?” Ally asked. Orion shook his head slowly. Keeping his voice low, he explained.

            “When Artemis was young, just starting the Hunt, she went hunting for five deer with golden antlers —five hinds— to pull her chariot. Four of them she caught. The other escaped and earned her freedom. It became sacred, the Cerynian Hind of Artemis. And, uh…” he stuttered nervously as another hot puff of air from the hind’s nose tossed his bangs. “...That’s her.”

            I gave a low, impressed whistle. Suddenly, the hind’s head snapped up to make eye-contact with me.

            _Eep._

            “Hey, do that again,” said Allafare.

            _No thanks._ I shook my head. Thalia whistled instead. The hind turned to look at her. Orion looked down at the ocarina in his hand. Slowly, cautiously, he put it to his lips and played “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” quietly. The hind’s eyes widened.

            “...You like it?” he questioned. He reached out to place a hand on the hind’s nose. It nudged its face into his gut and kneeled down on its front legs. “What? You want me to…?” He leaned closer, and suddenly it scooped him up onto its head.

            “Be careful!” I called, as the hind straightened up. Orion laughed, sitting comfortably between the deer’s antlers.

            “She’s friendly!” he shouted. “I think she wants to give us a lift! Do you know the way to the Grand Canyon?” he asked the hind. It snorted.

            “You can’t ask a deer for directions!” I cried.

            “Why not? She probably knows more than Thalia!”

            “SAY IT TO MY FACE, ORION.”

            “I’m sorry, Thalia. That was really mean in… _hind_ sight.”

            Everybody groaned. Even the deer.

            “C’mon, guys. Aren’t you _fawned_ of that idea? We better get a move on. We wouldn’t want our quest to go _stag_ nant, would we? I know I _doe-_ n’t. Personally, I think it’s pretty—”

            “I WILL GET ON THE DEER IF IT WILL MAKE YOU STOP,” Allafare shouted.

            “—en _deer_ ing.”

            The hind knelt down again and bowed its head. Orion scooted to its back, which was wide enough across for us to comfortably sit criss-cross between its shoulder blades, as long as we had a good sense of balance.

            Thalia climbed aboard, grasping the hind’s antlers like a railing. I followed suit and  wheeled Allafare up the hind’s snout like a ramp, apologizing all the way. It didn’t seem to like that much.

            Once we were all settled, I sat behind the deer’s head. I took out my sword and held it in the air.

            “Onward, to victory!” I cried.

            “This ain’t Middle Earth, loser,” said Allafare.

            I took a handful of the Fifth Hind’s golden fur. It was shaggy, more like an elk than a regular deer. Her shining antlers were covered with a thin fuzz, like the baby reindeer in the Christmas petting zoos Mom used to take me to when I was younger.

            “Wait a minute,” I pondered, “How can a girl deer have antlers?”

            “Seriously? Giant, magical, golden-horned deer and you’re bothered that she’s a she?” Allafare argued.

            “Good point.”

            I almost lost my grip as the hind leapt into motion.

            _This is amazing!_

            The Arizona highway turned into a blur beneath us as the Hind’s hooves chewed up lengths of orange-brown-gold desert rock beneath us. It felt just like flying, and between you and me, I suspect there was a touch of magic in it. She was fast, so fast our heads should have been spinning, but we rode as comfortably atop her as a horse. From time to time, we would cross into cities and towns, but the hind left everything untouched and went completely unnoticed (I reckon that was probably because of the Mist—even so, I was astounded.) By the time evening rolled violet in the sky, the Hind had traveled all the way to Grand Canyon National Park. She stood near the edge of the canyon, and we took in the vast, soaring space in front of us.

            Whatever you think you know about the Grand Canyon from pictures, multiply by a thousand, and then picture it in the dim, fading light of evening. It was like a fantasy landscape, the rock formations grey and purple with shadows and the Colorado River winding emerald along the bottom.

            It was breathtaking.

            I thought of my mom, and how much she would have loved to come here on vacation. My heart twisted in my chest.

            _It’s okay,_ I reminded myself, _It’s almost over._ I would be home soon.

            The hind knelt and allowed us to dismount. As soon as we were on the ground, she flopped down on her side like a tired dog. The impact shook loose a few boulders near the top of the canyon that tumbled away into the abyss. Orion patted the Hind’s side gratefully.

            “Good deer,” he smiled.  She huffed.

            “Let’s set up here for the night,” Thalia suggested.

            “Good idea,” I agreed. I dropped my satchel on the ground. “There. Done.”

            Orion offered to start a fire. He and Allafare went off to collect dry wood from the low, scrubby bushes that dotted the landscape and left Thalia and me to make our campsite as comfortable as possible. She rolled out a silver sleeping bag from inside her backpack. I arranged rocks in a circle for a fire pit. All the while, the hind watched our progress. She made me nervous. Something about her eyes seemed very, very smart.

“It’s a good thing you and Orion knew about the Ceryneian hind,” I noted. “I would have been scared senseless if it weren’t for you two.”

“Eh. It’s whatever,” Thalia shrugged. “Hunters know all the great Artemisian lore. That stuff is like bedtime stories to us.”

“Really? I only got the chance to read some of the basics back at camp. You know any other good stories?”

She was just finishing a story about how Artemis turned a guy into a deer and had him killed by his own hunting dogs for watching her and her Hunters bathe (harsh, but come on, that’s pretty creepy) when Orion and Allafare came back. Ally’s lap and Orion’s arms were full of fire fuel. Orion struck up a fire and joined in on the fun.

“Oh, oh, and don’t forget about how she had to deliver her own brother!” Orion laughed and shook his head. “Man, that guy was nothing but trouble from day one.”

“Deliver him from what?” Allafare asked.

Orion explained that when Artemis and Apollo’s mother, Leto, was pregnant, Hera had cursed her so that she couldn’t give birth on any land with roots, which was why she had given birth to the twins on the floating island of Delos.

“To make sure that Leto couldn’t find somewhere safe to hide, Hera sent a monster after her. The first thing Apollo did when he was born was go out and kill it. Those two are way protective of their mom’s honor,” Orion concluded, tossing away an apple core from Persephone’s garden and leaning contentedly into the Ceryneian hind’s side with his hands locked behind his head.

“What kind of a monster?” I asked.

“Giant snake.”

I thought for a second. Then, I felt realization slam me in the chest as all the pieces crashed into place.

“Alex?” said Ally. “You alright? You don’t look so good.”

“Guys,” I breathed shakily, “I think I know what happened to Apollo. Parseltongue. In _Harry Potter_ , that’s the language of snakes.”

I could see understanding dawn on their faces in the orange-gold flickering firelight.

 _“Blood of Owl, Thief and Day will quest to the chasm where serpents lay,”_ Thalia recited.

“ _The swallowed god again shall rise,”_ Allafare added.

“Good grief, the guy’s Purina Python Chow,” Orion finished elegantly.

We all went quiet. The cheery atmosphere from only a few moments earlier had been replaced with quiet dread. Even the hind’s ears were pushed attentively forward, as if to say _Well? What now?_

I shivered. I hadn’t realized how cold it had gotten since the sun went down.

            “Hey, isn’t it better that we know what we’re up against?” I tried optimistically. “Let’s just go to bed. Tomorrow we’ll fight. Tonight, let’s get some rest.”  Allafare, Orion, and Thalia murmured their agreement.

            I tried to curl up on the ground with my satchel as a pillow, but the four of us soon discovered that the Hind was having none of it. She herded us close to her side with her nose and curled protectively around us. Her antlers gave off a calm, comfortable glow, like a candle, or a lit Christmas tree in a dark apartment. Her pelt was warm and smelled of fresh air. My fears melted into tension and my tension melted into the hazy, indistinct static of exhaustion, and soon I sank into sleep.

 


	32. Chapter 32-Allafare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex, Allafare, Orion, and Thalia journey into the Canyon and face the monster of the prophecy.

Chapter 32

_Allafare_

 

            I awoke the next morning to find Orion poking at the ashes of the fire pit with a stick, deep in thought.  Nearby, the Fifth Hind grazed on a clump of greyish-purple brush. Alex and Thalia were still asleep, sprawled on the sandy ground.

            “Mornin’,” he mumbled.

            “Mornin’,” I replied.

I dug around in my bag for my chair compact. I pulled it out and unfolded it. In the early morning sun, my chair glittered as awesomely as it had on the first day of our quest. That day felt like forever ago.

Orion passed me a withered apple from Persephone’s greenhouse and a bag of Doritos from the Amazons. The breakfast of champions. We ate in silence, and soon Alex and Thalia joined us.

We didn’t chat much. What was there to say? “So, gang, how’s everyone feeling about heading to our possible deaths? Lovely weather we’re having!”

Once everyone had eaten, we got back on the Fifth Hind and made our way down the steep edge of the canyon. The deer was surprisingly good at canyon-scaling, but that didn’t seem to comfort Thalia much. She breathed heavily and gripped Orion’s hand so hard his fingertips turned purple.

“It’s not so bad,” he comforted, patting the Hind’s hide lovingly. “Fivey’s got us.”

I was about to point out that “Fivey” was probably the stupidest name I ever heard in my entire life when Alex accidentally dropped his water bottle out of his boy purse. It plummeted 200 feet and then shattered on a sharp rock formation that jutted out of the canyon’s side.

“Whoops,” said Alex.

Thalia whimpered.

Remind me never to take her skydiving.

When we got to the bottom of the canyon, she was the first one to get her feet back on the ground. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Alright. Let’s talk strategy,” she said. The Lieutenant was back. Alex raised his hand.

“I don’t wanna be the guy who points out that Allafare’s weaponless and I’ve only owned this sword for like two weeks, but… uh… consider that,” he said.

“Orion and I can handle the snake.”

“We can?” Orion gulped. Thalia ignored him.

“I hate to bench you guys, but if things get sticky out there, somebody needs to tell the gods what happened to Apollo. And bring back the bodies. Y’know, if there are any,” she added.

Orion looked thrilled.

            Thalia started off in one direction. I don’t think she knew where she was going, but she probably wanted to regain a certain level of control. Some people will do anything to try and cover up their weakness. I mean, some people. Nobody I know, obviously, but some people.

            The Fifth Hind started back up the canyon wall. I guess she wasn’t too fond of fighting giant snakes either.

            “Bye, Fivey,” Orion muttered.

            “Hey,” I said, “Relax, man. You’ve faced worse before, right?”

            “That was with other Hunters. And—and I haven’t used my bow in a long time, not really. What if something goes wrong? What if—what if I mess up and  you guys get killed because of it? I don’t think I can do this. I can’t. I can’t do this, I can’t d—”

            “Friends stick together, dude. You aren’t gonna do this alone. So… chill,” I said. Orion was quiet for a moment.

            “You’re okay with staying with Alex?” he asked.

            “Somebody has to drag your sorry butts out of trouble,” I grumbled. Facts were facts, y’know? You fight without a weapon, you die.

            The sky was cloudy, and the huge river to our left glinted grey in the overcast light. We hiked alongside it on the rocky bank. It wasn’t easy: it really put James’ suspension system to the test. The silence was even more uneasy than the terrain. Was that just the sound of the river, or was that the scratch of scales over sand? Did those rocks fall loose on their own, or were they moved by something stirring under the ground? Thalia and Orion kept their arrows nocked in their bows. Alex kept his hand on the hilt of his sword. Me? I kept quiet.

            Suddenly Alex gasped.

            “There!” he whispered loudly and pointed with his sword. The four of us scrambled to the canyon wall as quickly and quietly as possible. I could feel my heart beating in my chest. Part of the canyon wall jutted out between us and the monster. Thalia glanced at Orion and nodded. The two of them crept silently against the rock face, right up to the edge. Then, quick as lightning, Thalia dashed out into the open and fired one, two, three, four, five arrows in rapid succession. Orion let out a whoop of glee.

            “You got it!”

            Alex grabbed my chair and hurried me around the edge of the rock face. My heart was racing too much for me to bother telling him to shove off, my legs don’t work, my arms are fine, thanksverymuch.

            “Ugh,” Alex muttered. That about summed it up.

            The snake was definitely ugh. Its huge body lay across the river with its head on our shore. It was as thick as a subway tunnel, maybe twice as thick, and its scales were the color of old garbage bags: mostly black, almost green. The whole area stank with the smell of reptile. It smelled like the apartment of our old neighbor that tried to get away with raising illegal iguanas out of his walk-in closet before my mom called the cops.

            “Ugh,” I agreed.

            “Wait a minute…” Orion said. He started forward, but Alex grabbed his arm.

            “Wait, how do we know it’s…?” Orion shook him off and cautiously approached the enormous twisting wreck of the snake’s body. The shafts of Thalia’s five arrows stuck out of its forehead like unicorn horns.

            Finally, Orion stood right next to the snake’s head. He grabbed a hold of one of Thalia’s arrows and yanked. The arrow came out easily, and the skin around it tore away. Holding his nose, Orion pulled out the other four arrows. The snake’s skin cracked and ripped easily.

            There was no skull inside.

            “Guys?” he called. “This is just the skin. It must have shed, like a regular snake.”

            Thalia squinted at the enormous snakeskin.

            “But then where’s the—?”

            Her words were cut short. You wouldn’t think a snake the size of a train would be sneaky, but it was. It burst forward from behind us at lightning speed and caught us all off guard.

            Alex grabbed my chair by the handles and hauled me back into the corner of the canyon wall and the rock formation that jutted out of it. We were cornered.

The snake sprang at Thalia. She shot for its head, but it swerved too quickly for her to get a clear shot. Although her arrows stuck in the monster’s scales, they didn’t slow it down at all. Just as it was about to strike, Alex dashed forward and buried his sword in the tip of its tail. It hissed like a thousand angry cats dropped in a bathtub and whipped around to face him. I could have sworn I heard him growl “fifty points for Gryffindor.”

“Hey ugly, over here!” Thalia shouted. The snake turned to her. She shot another three arrows in its chest (or whatever a snake has instead of a chest).

“No, over here!” Cried Alex. They took turns distracting the snake, always drawing its attention away from one another before it could strike. The snake decided it had had enough. It slammed its huge, disgusting tail first into Thalia, then into Alex. Thalia landed somewhere in the river. Alex hit the wall of the canyon with a sharp cry of pain and slumped to the sandy floor. Then the snake turned its attention to me.

I’ve never been so scared in my entire life.

            It drew itself up to its full height. A dry hiss rattled in the back of its throat.

            _Gods help me._

Just as the snake’s head flashed forward, so did Orion. TWANG! The snake screamed and drew back, the butt of a silver arrow stuck in its throat. Orion stood ready in front of me, bow drawn and hands trembling. The snake reared up once more and opened its mouth wide in a shriek. Orion hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then he fired arrows faster than I could follow,  one after another, another, another, another. Some of them stuck firm in the flesh of the monster’s mouth; others passed right through the roof of its maw and out its skull. The snake teetered for a second, mouth open as if in surprise, and then dropped to the floor of the canyon with a thud that rattled my chair.

Orion turned to me and smiled. The kid looked like he was about to cry from fear or pride or relief or I don’t know what.

“I did it,” he said.

I’ve heard of some lizards whose tails will keep moving if they’re torn off. Maybe that’s what happened, or maybe for a split second, some evil life was forced back into the python. All I know is that before it crumbled into sand and blew away in the wind, it convulsed one more time and sank one foot-long fang in Orion’s shoulder.

Orion’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He didn’t even have time to register pain. Just surprise. The sight froze itself in my mind.

No wait… it really _was_ frozen. There was Alex over by the canyon wall, frozen in the middle of standing back up, and Thalia clambering wet out of the river, the water that dripped out of her hair and clothes suspended in midair.

“What the…?”

The pile of dust that had been a giant python seconds earlier started to glow. I was smart enough to cover my eyes. I’d probably be dead if I didn’t. Everybody knows that seeing a god’s natural form will fry you from the inside out. You’ll have to imagine what happened next ‘cause I couldn’t put a picture to the conversation that followed.

“You would not believe how stuffy it is in there,” said a young man’s voice.

“Apollo?” I asked.

“In the flesh. Well… not quite. But ‘in the divine essence’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?”

“—II don’t understand. Apollo can’t stop time. This doesn’t make sense.”

“Weeeeeell, it’s not so much stopping time as it is having a really, _really_ quick conversation. It’s sort of a generic godly power. Just think of this as a vision.”

 _Ironic, considering the fact that if I open my eyes, I’m dead meat,_ I thought.

“A vision of what?” I said instead.

“You have to get home, and quickly, too. I give it, say—” he paused like he was counting on his fingers. His stupid, divine form fingers. “Ten minutes without medical attention before your friend dies, either from the venom in his veins or the extreme blood loss he will no doubt experience soon. Tell Artemis of your quest. Tell her you have succeeded, and that she will see me soon.”

“What??? No way! Come with us and tell her yourself. She won’t believe me!”

“Calm yourself, Allafare,” said Apollo. I had to stop myself saying _Only my friends call me Allafare_. Apollo was kind of a flake, but he was still a god. “Are you not a daughter of Hermes, messenger of the gods? Have faith. But first things first! How are you going to get home?”

“The Fifth Hind can take us.”

“Then your friend will die.”

“But it’s the only way!”

“Is it?” It sounded like he was smirking. Gods, what a jerk. _Wait… He’s right,_ I remembered. I felt for the RETURN TO SENDER stickers in my skirt pocket. There were four. Just enough.

            “Now you’ve got it!” said Apollo. “You’ll have to work fast, daughter of Hermes.” He thought for a minute.

“ _Better get home soon_

_Back to where your quest began_

_Or your friend is toast,”_ he recited.

            “Is that a haiku?” I asked. I couldn’t believe this guy. He didn’t answer. I felt a burst of sunlight on my skin and heard the faint sound of string instruments. Then, Apollo was gone.

 


	33. Chapter 33-Orion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orion faces his biggest fear: telling Artemis the truth.

Chapter 33

_Orion_

 

            “Sh… he’s waking up.”

            _Where am I?_

            “Orion? Can you hear me?”

            I rolled over.

            “Dad…?” I asked groggily. I opened my eyes. Everything was blurry. Where were my glasses? I thought I could make out the shapes of three or four people sitting around… was I in a bed?

            “Here, take your glasses,” said that oddly familiar voice. The room came into focus, but my thought didn’t. Alex and Allafare were sitting at the end of my bed, both in orange camp shirts, both wide-eyed with worry. The head counselor of the Apollo cabin sat at my bedside, a first aid kit open in his lap. What was his name? Will? Will Solace, I think. Heh. That’s funny.

            “Do you know where you are?” he asked. I looked around. It was the same room I had woken up in on my first day at camp.

            “In the Big House,” I answered.

            “Do you remember what happened?”

            I thought hard.

            “I… fell off my bike?” I guessed.

            “You don’t have a bike,” said Allafare.

            “ Don’t I…?” I trailed off. “No, no we were on a quest and we… did we won?” I asked.

            “Yeah, dude. We won,” said Alex. He smiled, but he still looked worried.

            My left shoulder felt stiff. I touched it and found it heavily bandaged.

            “Don’t worry about that,” said Will. “It’s been a little difficult to treat— magical venom always is— but it’s healed up nicely in the past day.”

            “ _Day?_ How long have I been out?” I asked. My head started to clear, but I didn’t remember much after shooting the giant snake in the face twenty or thirty times.

            “Well, in and out for a couple of days,” answered Will. “In a day or two, you’ll be back on your feet. Although I must say…” he screwed up his face oddly. “I’ve never had a patient make so many puns.” Now I remembered: I’d been bitten by Python.

            “Heheh. Fangs a lot, Doc,” I grinned. Will stifled a groan.

            “Hey, Solace? Could we?” Allafare gestured vaguely between Alex, herself, and me. Will nodded.

            “I’ll check back on you in an hour,” he promised. Then he was gone.

            Allafare looked cool enough, but Alex had zero poker face.

            “What?” I asked. “What is it?”

            “Um…” Alex shuffled in his chair. “When we arrived at camp, we didn’t have time to take you anywhere before we called for help, and Will had to check your vitals, and, er—”

            “And what?”

            “Everybody knows,” finished Ally.

            “Knows what?”

            Alex gingerly laid my red zip-up hoodie at the foot of the bed. The fabric of one shoulder was torn open and blood stained. I realized what Alex meant. Will wouldn’t have been able to administer medical care through such a big, floppy sweatshirt, and if Alex and Allafare hadn’t had time to take me out of the camp’s common areas, that meant that anybody nearby would have seen me—all of me— with just a T-shirt. What was the word again? Transgender.

            I sighed. “It’s alright. I’m… kinda relieved, actually. I always thought telling people would be the hardest part. Guess I don’t have to now.”

            “Sorry,” said Alex.

            “It’s okay.”

            There was a knock on the door. Thalia stood grimly in the hallway.

            “Orion… Lady Artemis is here. She awaits your decision.”

            “What decision?” asked Alex warrily. I felt my heart sink into my stomach.

            “There can’t be a boy in the Hunt,” I replied. “It’s not safe.”

            “Just stay here with us!” Alex cried. “You don’t have to go back to the Hunt!”

            “Guys… I’m not a demigod. I’m just a mortal. If I leave the Hunt...I can’t come back to Camp Half Blood.” I felt like my insides were turning grey. I couldn’t imagine leaving behind Artemis, my friends, my family, but...

            “Can’t you just pretend?” Alex asked, his voice cracking. Ally didn’t meet my eyes.

            I pushed back the covers  and got out of bed. I didn’t realize how whoozy standing up would make me. The whole room started spinning, and my shoulder tingled.

            “Whatya think you’re doing?” Ally asked.

            “I’m gonna get words fancy,” I mumbled. Gripping my shoulder, I stumbled past Thalia and out the Big House’s corridor.

            Outside, sparkling snow covered the grass. I wasn’t expecting that. Come to think of it, though, it must have been a week or so into December by then. Can’t blame ‘em for wanting to get into the holiday spirit. The cold made my shoulder ache, especially without a jacket.

There was nobody around. I figured it must have been lunch time. I headed up the path from the Big House that lead past the canoe lake and up to the Dining Pavilion. I realized soon after that Alex, Allafare, and Thalia were following close behind.

            The walk up the hill to the dining pavilion took my breath away, and I don’t mean because of the gorgeous view of Long Island Sound. By the time I made it to the top, Alex and Allafare caught up with me.

            “Well good morning, princess!” Came Ryder’s voice from the Aphrodite table. I didn’t have the energy to tell him to shove off.

            “HEY.” Alex stomped up to Ryder and knocked his cup off the table, spilling hot chocolate everywhere. “He’s _not_ a princess,” he seethed. Then, he very politely picked the cup up off the ground, dusted some snow of of it, and placed it back on the table. I’m sure for Alex, that was a major “screw you.” Violence isn’t really his strong suit. It’s the thought that counts.

            I was too winded to walk much further. I had to take a break. I leaned against the nearest table and tried to catch my breath. It was Cabin Seven’s table.

            “What are you doing out of bed?” Will Solace cried. None of his siblings paid him any attention, though. They were too busy snickering and shushing each other.

            “Don’t you dare laugh at him,” Allafare growled from behind me.

            “We’re not! We’re not, I swear!” said a girl at the other end of the table.

            “Then what’s so funny?” Ally demanded.

            “We’ll tell you later,” said another boy.

            I glanced up and made eye-contact with one of the older kids, a boy I didn’t recognize from camp but felt like I’d seen around before. He was smiling kind of smug-like. He raised his eyebrows as if to say _Well? Is that all?_

            I gathered my strength and shoved myself back onto my feet, staggering towards the Hunters’ table. By then, many of the tables had noticed me lurching across the dining pavilion. I could feel them watching me. It didn’t feel good.

            And then there she was. She sat in the center of a gathering of Hunters. I hadn’t seen her in a year. I almost cried when her silver eyes met mine. She only appeared a year or three older than me, but I knew better. Though she often changed her appearance (today, her hair was black as night and pulled back in a ponytail), I knew Artemis when I saw her.

            “Lady Artemis,” I gasped, falling to one knee before her (half out of respect, half out of exhaustion.)

            “Orion. My Hunter and my bane. What do you have to say for yourself?”

            “My lady, I ask forgiveness not for what I’ve done, but for the trouble I’ve caused. It was never my intent to cause you or our fellows distress. Forgive me my foolishness, but not my path.”

            “The rumors are true, then?”

            “Yes, my Lady.”

            “You would break your vows thus?”

            “I cannot keep my vows either way, my Lady. To pretend I have done otherwise would be a lie. Admitting my fault is the lesser of two evils.”

            Artemis went quiet for a moment.

            “Then you wish to leave the Hunt?” her voice had softened.

            _I could never. I want to stay with you forever. But I know I can’t._

            “Yes, my Lady.” I heard my voice crack.

            “Very well. I release you, Orion Ces—”

            “Orion Hunter, if you please, my Lady. That name has no power over me now.” I hoped nobody could tell I was crying. I shut my eyes tight. Would it hurt when she took my grace away?

            “I release you, Orion Hunter,” She placed her hand on my shoulder. I admit it, I winced.   “With an honorable discharge—” Artemis’ voice cut short. I kept my eyes closed. What was wrong? A wave of gasps and muttering swept through the tables around me.  

            “...Rise, Orion,” Artemis demanded.

            “My Lady?” I opened my eyes. Then I gasped, too.

            Glowing in the air above my head was an arrow made of honey-colored light.

            “Oh, alright. I admit it.” The older boy I didn’t quite recognize at the Apollo table got to his feet with a smirk. “This one’s mine.”

 


	34. Chapter 34-Orion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apollo spills the beans

Chapter 34

_Orion_

 

            “Apollo!” Artemis shouted in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

            “Why, making an entrance, my dear sister,” he replied. The other Cabin Seven kids snickered loudly. I guess they knew it was him the whole time. But that didn’t explain why he was here…?

            He shuffled around the tables to come stand next to Artemis and me.

            “This is nonsense,” Artemis growled.

            “No, this is my son,” Apollo said. He placed a hand on my shoulder. Some part of me really wanted to reply _No, Apollo, you’re_ my _sun_ , but I couldn’t sort through my confusion fast enough for it to be funny. Plus, I didn’t like how touchy-feely he was getting. I subconsciously leaned away from him.

            “You’re not my— I’m not—” I stuttered.

            “I told you I’d come back for you,” he said, only loud enough for me to hear. For a second, his grin looked more like a sad smile.

            “You’re being ridiculous,” Artemis said. “I know my Hunters inside and out—”

            “AHEMone’saboyCOUGHCOUGH,” Apollo cleared his throat. Artemis ignored him.

            “—and there’s no way I would have missed a demigod in our ranks! I would have sensed him,” she finished.

            “Of course you would have. Unless he was, for some reason, in possession of a very powerful magical weapon that had been heavily charmed to cloak any kind of divine presence,” Apollo replied.

            “I’m not— I don’t—” I tried weakly.

            “May I see this?” Apollo asked, grabbing my wrist. I couldn’t find the word “no” even if I wanted to. Apollo grabbed my charm bracelet and yanked it as hard as he could.

            “Stop! You’ll break it!” I cried. And he did. But as soon as the silver chain snapped, the bracelet began to transform in his hand. It grew and stretched and molded itself into the shape of a silver, harp-like instrument.

            _It’s never done that before,_ I thought, feeling faint.

            “Oh my gosh…” Alex was standing right behind me. “That’s the lyre of Apollo! _Revealed will be the_ lyre’s _disguise_ , not the _liar’s_ disguise!” he gaped. “Thalia translated the prophecy incorrectly, remember?”

            “Right you are,” Apollo nodded. “I needed somewhere to stash this for a while, and like hell I was going to risk one of Hermes’ kids getting their hands on it. He’s always bringing up how he technically invented it, it should be his symbol not mine, blah blah blah…”

            “I resent that,” Allafare said from beside Alex.

            “What better place to hide it than with my own child? Of course I couldn’t let you know you were mine. Then you might have put the pieces together too quickly. Can’t have that. So I kept quiet, maybe manipulated a few things here and there so that you’d find the Hunters—”

            “You _used_ me,” I interrupted. Apollo’s aura of self pride flickered.

            “I wouldn’t necessarily say I—”

            “You—you left me with that awful woman twenty-five years ago and you never came back,” I said. Apollo shifted uncomfortably. He took his hand off my shoulder.

            “There are some things that even _I_ can’t foresee, Orion,” he said. It was the first time he said my name. It sent a shiver down my spine. “Your mother… she was one of them.” He took a step back and looked me up and down. “...And so was _this_ ,” he added. I crossed my arms and tried to hide my chest.

            Apollo held the lyre in one hand and it began to glow. It shrank down to the size of the bracelet it had been for the past two and a half decades. Then, he rubbed the glowing metal in the palm of his hand like a pottery worker shaping clay. When he held it up again, it was a pair of dog tags, each imprinted with a small picture of a lyre and a bow and arrows.

            “You’ve protected this well, whether you meant to or not. I wouldn’t mind if you held on to it for a little while longer,” he said. “I’ve removed the cloaking charm—you’ve gotten into enough trouble lately— but it’s still a very powerful instrument, both musically and in battle.” He handed it to me by the chain. “Break off one of the tags whenever you have need of its power. It is capable of becoming every instrument imaginable, though you might have to start small.”

            I took it in my hand (I didn’t bother to mention that I really hadn’t minded it as a bracelet, even if it was meant for a girl) and sharply snapped off one of the dog tags. It instantly became a triangle in my hand.

            “That’s a good start,” Apollo nodded.

            “I don’t understand, brother…” Artemis shook her head. “Why would you go to such lengths to conceal such a weapon?”

            Apollo’s face turned dark. He spoke low, only loud enough for the few of us standing so close to hear.

            “Something is coming, sister. Something older than all of us.”

            I rubbed my aching shoulder in the silence that followed.

            “But now is neither the time nor the place to discuss,” Apollo brightened up. “You have an announcement, don’t you?”

            Artemis nodded. “Allafare Winsover, please step forward,” she announced for the whole pavilion to hear. Ally stared at me in surprise. I gestured her forward and took her place besides Alex.

            “Your quest has done me a great service,” said Artemis. “You have returned my Brother, my Hunter, and my Lieutenant. For this, I am grateful. Perhaps there is some favor I can pay you in return.” Her voice lost its edge when she said that, and she placed a hand on the armrest of her wheelchair. Ally glanced back at us, eyes wide. Alex nodded enthusiastically. I flashed her the thumbs-up.

            She turned back to Artemis and gestured for her to come closer. Artemis awkwardly stooped down so that Ally could whisper in her ear. She looked amused.

            “I see. It will be done,” she swore.

            As if that were some kind of signal, lunch resumed as usual. Kids stopped staring at us, Apollo lazily cruised back to his (...my?????) table, where they all had a good laugh about how well he camouflaged with his own kids, and Artemis started to issue orders to her Hunters to pack up. Alex, Allafare, and I were left on our own.

            “It’s weird that your dad is so hot!” Kanuha shouted from table five.

            “He always knows what to say,” I muttered. Alex and Ally laughed.

            “We should eat,” said Alex. “I haven’t had a meal with my cabin since we got back.”

            Allafare and I nodded in agreement. When she set out for the Hermes’ table, I wasn’t sure whether to follow her, to sit at the Hunters’ table, or…

            Will Solace waved me down and made room on the bench next to him.

            _Oh boy… this is gonna take some getting used to._

 

* * *

 

            “Rise and shine, sunshine!” Will said, flickering the lights on and off.

            “Mfffrrrr,” I answered from my top bunk.

            “Come on, you’ve already slept through shower time. You wouldn’t want to miss breakfast!” he called on his way out the door.

_Ugh. He’s right._

I rolled over in my covers and yawned. The cabin was silent; everyone had left already.

The night before, I had said goodbye to Artemis, Thalia, the other Hunters (who assured me that they “didn’t think I was all that bad for a boy”), and 8-Track (who whined while I cried and promised I would see her again real soon). Afterwards, my new siblings helped set me up in Cabin Seven with a set of new, clean Camp Half Blood shirts, a pair of unripped jeans, a coat, and some stuff for the shower. It was more new stuff than I think I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I passed out almost instantly, and now I was finally ready for my first real day as a camper. I sat up excitedly in bed.

_BONK!_

“Ouch!”

That’s funny… I could have sworn that ceiling wasn’t that low the night before.

“Weird,” I said out loud. Yikes, was I catching a cold? My voice definitely sounded off. I made my way over to the bunk bed ladder to let myself down.

CRASH! I misstepped almost right away and tumbled to the ground.

 _What in Hades…?_ My legs felt funny… No, my _hips_ felt funny. For some reason, everything felt extra special awkward today. Not a stellar start to my camp career, I gotta say.

            I groped around for my glasses for a long time, but they weren’t on the bookshelf where I remembered putting them. With a sigh, I decided I would just get dressed while I waited for someone who could help me. No use having the blind lead himself, y’know?

            So, tripping over my own uncooperative legs, I pulled off my pajamas.

            Yeah.

            That’s when I screamed.

 


	35. Chapter 35-Alex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Allafare's wish has unexpected effects. The gang's adventure draws to a close...for now.

Chapter 35

_Alex_

 

            “Now it’s _very important_ to remember that when we see her, she’s still the same old Allafare,” I instructed James, Kanuha, and Jack Kansas, who sat together on one of the benches of the Hermes table. “We don’t want her to think that we think any different of her just because she can walk now, okay?” Kanuha nodded in agreement. James tapped one foot on the ground and gave no indication that she heard me.

            “I’m just here for breakfast, man. Don’t drag me into this,” Jack shrugged. I sighed in exasperation.

            “Can’t you guys try and be a little excited? This is kind of a big deal.” _She can play baseball again. She’s gonna be so happy,_ I thought, but I kept that part to myself.

            “Can’t you losers keep it down? Some of us like a little peace and quiet before breakfast.”

            “Ally!” I spun around grinning. My smile instantly fell off my face.

            “My friends call me Allafare. You know that, Alex,” she yawned. “I’m starving. What’s to eat?”

            “But—but you’re in a wheelchair,” I stuttered.

            “Well, yeah. I’m paralyzed. That doesn’t mean I don’t want breakfast, though.” She rolled up to the end of the Hermes table. The goblet on the end filled itself with chocolate milk. Allafare took a swig.

            “But didn’t Artemis…?” I tried. I realized Ally was barely holding back a grin as she sipped her chocolate milk.

            _She’s messing with me. Is she just_ pretending _she still needs her chair, or what?_

            “Here, hold these,” she interrupted my train of thought and held something out to me.

            “Are  these… Orion’s glasses?” I asked.

            “Heh. Yeah. It’ll be funnier like this,” she answered with a grin. Before I got the chance to ask what she meant, a loud shout sounded all the way from the cabins. “Oh good,” said Ally, “he’s awake.”

            Several minutes later, a figure came stumbling drunkenly out of the U of Olympian cabins, occasionally bumping into picnic tables or face-planting into the fallen snow.

            “Is that kid okay?” Kanuha fretted as they drew closer.

            “Who is that?” I mused. As we watched, the kid tripped over their own legs once more, only this time they really couldn’t get up. It was a little like watching the ice-skating scene from Bambi, if Bambi had been a person and also blind. “Somebody should help him!”

            Kanuha hopped to his feet, but I was already halfway down the hill. I could tell the kid was a boy about my age. He got to his feet, but when he tried to take a step towards the dining pavilion, he didn’t plant his foot quite right and crumpled to the ground again.

            “Hey, are you alright?” I asked, offering him a hand.

            “Alex? Is that you?” The boy squinted up at me. His voice was deeper, his chest was flat, and his face was square, but those blue eyes were unmistakable. My mouth fell open.

            “ _Orion?_ ”

            “Somethin’s weird, dude, my whole body feels—”

            “Different?” I guessed. I helped him to his feet and handed him his glasses. He slipped them on and looked himself over, eyes wide.

            “Is this— is this a dream?” Orion asked embarrassedly.

            “Not this time,” I answered. I glanced up at the dining pavilion. Allafare waved. “C’mon.” I held out my arm. Orion clamped on and staggered up the hill beside me, only tripping two or three times.

            “Ally… you did this?” Orion sat down on the bench beside her.

            “No, but Artemis did.”

            “But— But you could have—”

“Just say thanks, alright?”

Orion leaned forward and squeezed Ally tight around the shoulders. I could have sworn she turned a little pink.

“I thought you didn’t like all that touchy-feely stuff,” she mumbled.

“It’s not so bad now,” he replied.

“...There is _one_ condition.”

“What?”

“Get a freakin’ haircut.”

 

* * *

 

            A couple days later, Orion and I sat at the edge of the arena while Allafare took her first archery lesson in two years. Orion had tried all morning to turn Apollo’s lyre into a guitar, but couldn’t make anything more complicated than a cowbell appear. In the end, he settled for Kanuha’s ukulele. He sang Christmas songs while I burned through another half a dozen volumes of mythology.  Suddenly, he stopped.

            “Hey, Alex? What do you think Apollo meant by ‘something older than us all?’”

            “I dunno, dude. I guess we’ll figure it out when I get back,” I mumbled in reply.

            “...Back from where?”

            “Back for camp this summer, man. I’ve already got my stuff packed. I leave the day after tomorrow.”

            “You’re not… you’re not staying?” he asked, lowering his uke. I flipped my book shut and laughed.

            “I don’t think I’m ready to be a full-time demigod. That quest was about as much as I can handle for a while,” I said.

            “Oh…” Orion looked sadly at the ground. “It’s just…”

            “Orion’s coming to stay at my house for Christmas,” Allafare said, joining us as her cabin counselor took a break. “I was hoping you would wanna, too.”

            “Gosh… thanks a ton, guys. It’s just... I miss home. I’ll see you guys next summer. I promise,” I added. We sat together quietly for a minute. Orion still looked troubled. “What’s up?” I pried.

            “I was just thinking—”

            “That’s surprising,” Ally said.

            “—Apollo wanted to hide his lyre,” Orion continued, “He knew something dangerous was coming for him. But Python, that giant snake? It lost its powers of prophecy a long time ago. It’s just an animal now. Animals don’t steal weapons, and they definitely don’t kidnap gods.”

            “You think someone else is behind Apollo’s capture?” I guessed. Orion nodded.

            “‘Something older than us all,’” he repeated.

            “Hey,” said Ally, “between the three of us, we got brains, talent, and the two of you. It’s nothing we can’t handle.”

 

_End of Book One_

 


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